“Picture yourself on a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.” — The Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”
If you go to Northeastern, more than likely it was your parents’ generation that was a part of this culture surrounding the use of LSD, psilocybin (mushrooms) or mescaline (peyote, or cacti).
LSD and its cohorts haven’t left the forefront of American and world interest yet. New groups are dedicated to undoing the lies that have been spread about the alleged dangers and are aiming at a new purpose: medication.
Imagine your head beating, the pain around your eyes becoming unbearable and imagine this happening several times a day and lasting for hours. People with cluster headaches must deal with one of the most painful experiences any person can have, but recent studies say psilocybin may help with cluster headaches. Another study, done by the Hannover Medical School in Germany and a professor at Harvard Medical School, looked at a chemical called 2-bromo-LSD, an analog of LSD with no psychedelic effects, and the amount of attacks per week of patients plummeted after they took it.
Other research is being done as well. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been focusing on possible benefits of two substances: LSD and MDMA, or ecstasy.
MAPS is researching the potential use of LSD to treat patients with near-death anxiety. Patients with terminal illnesses were given psychotherapy sessions before and after two discussion sessions where LSD was administered. The LSD sessions were separated by two- to four-week intervals. Researchers then saw trends in the lowering of anxiety in the active treatment group.
Current research into MDMA psychotherapy for those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has shown results that haven’t been obtainable with any other drug or therapy. Researchers found that 83 percent of subjects in the active treatment group of the initial study no longer fit the criteria for PTSD, as compared to 25 percent in the placebo group.
Studies like this prove that these substances can be safely administered in a medical setting, a truth that may come as a surprise to some.
But psychedelics are not without fault. They have amazing potential to both help and harm. However, without proper education and preparation, or having disregard for the power of such drugs, the results can be disastrous. On the other hand, they have the unique capability to heal the broken psyche, expand consciousness and help one explore him or herself.
The responsibility of making sure this education exists falls on the government, but it is not doing its job to educate people on harm reduction and responsible substance use. Further, it isn’t the right of any entity to tell people what to do with their bodies, as long as they are not harming others.
A fear around psychedelics is perpetuated by the lies the government proffers: saying psychedelics make you insane or cause schizophrenia, that LSD stays in your spine for years after use or that MDMA drains spinal fluid and creates holes in your brain. The truth: you would be hard-pressed to find scientific research suggesting these fabrications contain a modicum of factual evidence.
Some people may argue that psychedelics can be dangerous. However, not only are these substances non-addictive, but no well-documented case of death by an overdose of LSD or psilocybin has occurred. But it is doubtful the government cares how dangerous a chemical is since morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl, drugs which cause thousands of deaths each year due to overdose, are available.
Psychedelics should be medically legal as they have been used safely multiple times in a medical setting and have great medical potential. Who knows, perhaps this could shake off the ill-informed stigma around psychedelics.
If the government could set up elementary drug awareness programs such as D.A.R.E., it should be able to set up a program to properly educate and prepare people so they could use psychedelics safely, even in a recreational environment. Unfortunately, the government is just too lazy to try, or genuinely ignorant enough to believe its own lies.
Photo courtesy Creative Commons.
