There os a renaissance in Psychedelic reaserch going on..

[sukumvit boy]

After decades of stalled research into the medical use of psychedelics, since the Nixon administration pushed to classify LSD and Psilocybin as Class One Narcotics in the 'War on Drugs' in 1971, research stalled because researchers couldn't the drugs to work with .
Now a new generation of investigators is rediscovering amazing results in the treatment of addiction and 'end of life' anxiety.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/ma...anted=all&_r=0

http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/05/19/...hiatric-resea/

Duh ! We told you so 50 years ago!
Fuck! I'm so glad I lived long enough to see this!

[sukumvit boy]

Oops! Sorry about the spelling errors.

[sukumvit boy]

Good recent New Yorker article.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...trip-treatment

[Jericho]

Oops! Sorry about the spelling errors.

It's alright, we'll just blame the drugs!

[Stavros]

After decades of stalled research into the medical use of psychedelics, since the Nixon administration pushed to classify LSD and Psilocybin as Class One Narcotics in the 'War on Drugs' in 1971, research stalled because researchers couldn't the drugs to work with .
Now a new generation of investigators is rediscovering amazing results in the treatment of addiction and 'end of life' anxiety.

Duh ! We told you so 50 years ago!
Fuck! I'm so glad I lived long enough to see this!

Thanks for the links to fascinating articles. But is this about that word 'control'? It is interesting that present day use of hallucinogens is taking place under controlled circumstances -production and distribution controlled, use controlled or monitored. Leary's belief that LSD should be freely available set the alarm bell ringing -but should such drugs be freely available? Would you want to get into a taxi being driven by someone on acid -what happens when you approach a set of traffic lights? Nevertheless, some important research on how these narcotics can be used responsibly, rather than for the amusement of people with the money to buy them, or the crooks cooking the stuff with whatever add ons to increase their profit margins.

[broncofan]

Yeah I think it would be a bad idea for the restrictions to be so loosened that people get ahold of them for recreational purposes. But scientists should be able to determine whether they have therapeutic uses.

A good example of a drug with significant abuse potential for which new uses has been discovered is ketamine. It has been used as a tranquilizer that does not depress breathing as much as some other anesthetics. Recently ketamine infusions have been used as a treatment for depression. A person gets an infusion of ketamine and the anti-depressant effect appears to last for several weeks after any short-term side effects have worn off.

Doctors have found ketamine is not a practical treatment for depression for a variety of reasons, but new drugs with similar mechanisms of action (nmda receptor antagonists) are now in the pipeline based on the findings from these trials. The point is that the research into these drugs can find what they are useful for, but also help to aid drug development. I also think they might have important uses in end of life anxiety for people who know they are going to die. That's not a trivial thing either.

[dreamon]

[quote]Michael Mithoefer, for instance, has shown that MDMA is an effective treatment for severe P.T.S.D.[/quote]

Well... let's be quite honest. MDMA definitely improves mood, but is that something you want to take longterm?

[broncofan]

[quote=dreamon;1583572]

Michael Mithoefer, for instance, has shown that MDMA is an effective treatment for severe P.T.S.D.[/quote]

Well... let's be quite honest. MDMA definitely improves mood, but is that something you want to take longterm?

It just depends on how morbid the condition is and what the alternative treatment options are. The treatments for PTSD are not very effective right now. People with PTSD take cocktails of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medicines, and anti-psychotics for sleep. Many patients with PTSD have over-dosed on anti-psychotic drugs just trying to get a night of sleep without horrifying nightmares. Yet there seems to be some sort of endocrine disruption as patients with PTSD have exaggerated negative feedback in their HPA axis and no targeted treatment has emerged to address this issue....so they are given various drugs to address each symptom as it arises.

I do think there should be limits to the treatment choices people have but that they should definitely be relaxed when the condition is morbid and the alternatives are quite bad. I think someone facing an end-of life situation is perfectly rational to not be concerned about long-term risks...for instance if MDMA is neurotoxic in high doses, is that really a concern for someone who has a very short life expectancy? If someone is so seriously disabled by their psychiatric condition, shouldn't that warrant greater risk taking?

[broncofan]

http://www.mdmaptsd.org/research-category.html

A couple of articles about mdma for ptsd came up on my twitter feed. I looked it up and in one trial 83% of people who received mdma and psychotherapy no longer qualified as having ptsd. It's amazing that its use as an illegal narcotic should block its potential as a treatment for a really awful disorder.

Some may think that Sessions' misguided war on drugs is a separate issue, involving only our criminal justice system and unjust incarceration. These are very good concerns in their own right, but this dogma also prevents drugs with therapeutic potential from ever being tested or used to their full potential.

[sukumvit boy]

Yes , broncofan , the "Doors of Perception" are slowly opening regarding the amazing therapeutic potential of these substances.
Sessions is the one in need of therapy for his obvious neurotic and delusional thinking in their regard.LOL