The new publication marks the latest in a series of baby steps by a loose coalition of researchers and fund-raisers who are working to bring hallucinogens back into the fold of mainstream psychiatry....
“The effort is both political and scientific,” said Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a foundation that has financed many of the studies. “We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance.”
March 3, 2014
Beyond medical marijuana, psychotherapeutic LSD.
A new study on the effects of LSD, "as a complement to talk therapy for 12 people nearing the end of life."
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We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance.
Are we to then assume that the author thinks we're in the Psychedelic Middle Ages now?
"Duuuude, don't go all medieval on me! You're harshin' my buzz!"
We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance.
Absolutely hilarious, given the history of LSD.
This drug emerged from the labs of Sandoz. Sandoz made the drug available to the CIA.
The CIA thought that LSD would be a super duper truth serum for use in interrogation. It wasn't.
It was something else altogether.
The counterculture discovered the true nature and use of LSD.
Are we to then assume that the author thinks we're in the Psychedelic Middle Ages now?
That works works pretty well as a metaphor, all things considered.
It wouldn't surprise me if LSD had medical uses. Most recreational drugs do -- cocaine, heroin/morphine, amphetamines, marijuana, etc.
Anything that has a powerful effect on the mind or body is probably good for something beyond just getting high.
I haven't taken acid, psilocybin or mescaline in the last 30 years. It was too scary, and then I got too busy. But I have often thought, that if I ever actually retire, I would like to give it another shot.
When I was in the Army Reserve, I was in a unit with Sid Cohen who was a real pioneer with LSD. He took it many times to try to study its effects. He was also one of the first to warn about it.
When I was in medical school in the 60s, we had a bunch of acid heads in the sophomore class. Some of them were having serious flashbacks and several never finished medical school. It's not something to fool with.
" amphetamines, "
They were heavily used by the Japanese with soldiers.
After the war, there were large stocks in Japan. Some of the research led to some of the first anti-psychotic drugs like haloperidol.
Fairly old news....This from a July 2012 article
"Of the hundreds of volunteers who’ve participated, a high majority have said that psychedelics, given in a safe, supportive setting, helped them to, depending on the study, accept imminent mortality, overcome drug and alcohol addiction, mitigate obsessive-compulsive urges, or heal post-traumatic stress disorder."
and
"“Micro-dosing turns out to be a totally different world,” Fadiman extolled. “As someone said, the rocks don’t glow, even a little bit. But what many people are reporting is, at the end of the day, they say, ‘That was a really good day.’ You know, that kind of day when things kind of work. You’re doing a task you normally couldn’t stand for two hours, but you do it for three or four. You eat properly. Maybe you do one more set of reps. Just a good day. That seems to be what we’re discovering.”
I always thought half a hit of acid was the way to go. Put a soft edge on reality. None of the nasty ego dispersion.
It's stories like these that make the Scientologists seem legitimate with some of their gripes...
Once when I was young and dumb I did half a hit. Nothing to crazy happened. We went swimming and I remember gliding through the water and thinking it felt like satin running over my skin. Everything was uproariously funny as one might expect. The only really annoying thing was seeing trailing light. It was a really good feeling but I have no desire to ever do it again.
Some very promising stuff being done with MDMA and vets with PTSD. Once we can get past the stigma from the 60s that is.
We all face death. We shouldn't need LSD to ease the realization that we're about to die. If we are blessed with awareness of imminent death, we can make plans for those we leave behind, make peace, and prepare our souls. In my last days, I would prefer to be as aware as possible, not stoned. I might have to reconsider if I'm in serious pain, but even then I doubt that LSD is the drug of choice.
Cary Grant Gary Cooper took LSD as part of therapy before it was banned.
Timothy Leary wants his Harvard Psilocybin Project back.
We all face death. We shouldn't need LSD to ease the realization that we're about to die.
Life is, however, not fair.
This was an area of investigation before criminalization. Aldous Huxley in particular thought it was very useful in reconciling himself to death.
On the other hand, an awful lot of those early experimenters ended up as total space cadets. It's a very tricky issue using drugs with so much potential for abuse for medical purposes.
Remember, anyone who has a good experience with microdosing LSD can readily and cheaply obtain macrodoses of the same drug. The potential for addiction is huge.
Dem docters ere trippin
My dad was given it under psychiatric care. It seems he really was being analyzed and it's hard to believe doctors would have any other plan of how this therapy would work. A safe situation just means the psychiatrists would want to intervene or control the situation.
"Beyond medical marijuana, psychotherapeutic LSD."
Now we're talkin'!
"“We want to break these substances out of the mold of the counterculture and bring them back to the lab as part of a psychedelic renaissance.”"
LSD is derived from a kind of mold.
For many of the drugs subject to our government's lunatic policy of prohibition the fact that buyers don't know what the dosage is, how much the drug has been adulterated, or what it's been adulterated with. That makes taking the drugs far more dangerous than it has to be.
Together with advances in our understanding of brain chemistry achieved over the last 50 years, taking LSD in a setting where purity and dosage are rigorously controlled and titrated should be far less hazardous than taking whatever some random hippie put on a square of blotter paper was.
Knew of a guy who was in a coma for a week or so after a bad hit of LSD...actually, he told us later that he had not been comatose, but rather thought he was an orange the whole time and oranges don't move.
Knew of a guy who was in a coma for a week or so after a bad hit of LSD...actually, he told us later that he had not been comatose, but rather thought he was an orange the whole time and oranges don't move.
Sid Cohen...was also one of the first to warn about it.
He warned about politicians messing things up by prohibition of casual use as well as in research. Article:
"Acknowledging LSD's value in psychotherapy, Dr. Cohen wrote of his concern over its abuse by the ''beatnik microculture,'' warning that this could set back serious research for years."
Remember, anyone who has a good experience with microdosing LSD can readily and cheaply obtain macrodoses of the same drug. The potential for addiction is huge.
The potential for addiction is approximately zero:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide
"LSD is non-addictive, is not known to cause brain damage, and has extremely low toxicity relative to dose."
http://www.thegooddrugsguide.com/lsd/addiction.htm
"LSD has zero physical addiction potential. It is not physically addictive and it is not a drug that you will want to immediately do again. This is not the type of drug where a user experiences withdrawal if another dose isn't ingested within a relatively short period of time."
Knew of a guy who was in a coma for a week or so after a bad hit of LSD
"Bad hit of LSD" means it wasn't LSD.
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