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Mind Altering Drugs Thread - Therapy, Legality


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eta: edited title to expand topics, originally talking about news in OP.

Drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression. Scientists believe the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients. The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies.

However, a bid by British scientists to carry out trials of psilocybin on patients in order to assess its full medical potential has been blocked by red tape relating to Britain's strict drugs laws. Professor David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, will tell a conference today that because magic mushrooms are rated as a class-A drug, their active chemical ingredient cannot be manufactured unless a special licence is granted.....


Total travesty. Makes me think about ibogaine, and how some people started using it to treat heroin addicts "under the table".

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It sounds similar to people being treated with special-K for depression. I listened to a report on NPR about that last year and the effects were dramatic, yet people had a very hard time finding treatment.

Silly restrictions are silly.

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I've heard about the special K thing too. I think there was a thread a while back about a suggestion that acid (as in, like, LSD) could treat alcohol dependence.

I suppose that some of these things may end up proving bunk, but it would sure be nice to find out if they aren't.

There was research done on this in the 50's. There was never any conclusive evidence that it was successful. It was all more spiritual mumbo jumbo than anything else. It was assumed because of the popularity of Alcoholics Anonymous that an alcoholic needed a "spiritual experience" in order to stop drinking. LSD was used to try and manufacture this. I personally find all of this to be a pile of rubbish.

In the 1880's cocaine was used as a treatment for alcoholism. That was introduced in to practice by Freud.

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If I could trade liquor for a good hit of acid now and then ...I would never take another drink...but since all you can get now days is blotter jaw tightening crap i guess i will stick with vodka...

as to the topic, I've eaten the mushrooms and it always picked up my spirits... :smoking:

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I personally find all of this to be a pile of rubbish.

I do recall a number of patients in one study saying that taking LSD in a controlled environment was one of the most positive, therapeutic experiences they ever had.

Will look for the reference.

eta: Of course, almost having my face bashed in by someone who overdoses on LSD does make me lean toward the idea that it should never be used in a recreational way.

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I do recall a number of patients in one study saying that taking LSD in a controlled environment was one of the most positive, therapeutic experiences they ever had.

Will look for the reference.

eta: Of course, almost having my face bashed in by someone who overdoses on LSD does make me lean toward the idea that it should never be used in a recreational way.

Using the wayback machine to go to the days when I tried things once to see for myself what the fuss was all about, I saw the mechanism of how the universe worked. Strangely enough, it looked like a gigantic amount of clockwork made up of wooden gears and levers. I could even hear them creaking and groaning. That went beyond being a therapeutic experience. That was a religious experience. Of course, it was all bullshit.

Attaching any credibility to the words of people under the influence of a halucinogen, is a bit risky.

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I do recall a number of patients in one study saying that taking LSD in a controlled environment was one of the most positive, therapeutic experiences they ever had.

Will look for the reference.

eta: Of course, almost having my face bashed in by someone who overdoses on LSD does make me lean toward the idea that it should never be used in a recreational way.

I took a boat load of the stuff in the 80's and early 90's. Let me tell you, I was full of positive and therapeutic experiences. There is absolutely no denying that LSD can be incredibly powerful and fun.

What I find is rubbish is the idea of "spiritual experiences" being used for the medical treatment of anything.

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If I could trade liquor for a good hit of acid now and then ...I would never take another drink...but since all you can get now days is blotter jaw tightening crap i guess i will stick with vodka...

as to the topic, I've eaten the mushrooms and it always picked up my spirits... :smoking:

as someone who has had major depression episodes since my early teens, I can say that shrooms do help in the short term. I don't know about the long term though. But then that's why the study would have been good...

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There was research done on this in the 50's. There was never any conclusive evidence that it was

successful. It was all more spiritual mumbo jumbo than anything else. It was assumed because of the popularity of Alcoholics Anonymous that an alcoholic needed a "spiritual experience" in order to stop drinking. LSD was used to try and manufacture this. I personally find all of this to be a pile of rubbish.

In the 1880's cocaine was used as a treatment for alcoholism. That was introduced in to practice by Freud.

Mostly cocaine and heroin were suggested as cures for alcoholism by supplanting the alcohol addiction with an addiction to something else, whereas the LSD and psilocybin approaches sought to create an extreme experience that dissolved the dependence on a substance.

The main reason more studies weren't done with LSD and psilocybin is that they were outlawed. Check out the DMT studies that were done, even in the pop documentary "the spirit molecule" and it's pretty clear that any scientific studies, in the US at least, on the therapeutic benefits of hallucinogenics were essentially hamstrung in their infancy.

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Yeah, I don't understand why a "spiritual experience" wouldn't be a possibly effective medical treatment.

There are anecdotes of ibogaine is being incredibly transformative. There are clinics using the hallucinogen to treat drug addiction, just not in the US (and I'm assuming not in the UK?).

What we need is research to determine when, why, and on who it works.

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Also anecdotal, but I've taken psilocybin ('shrooms) and LSD dozens of times. Sometimes, I've specifically done so to culminate a period of my life that I wanted to put some punctuation on. I don't know if that's the same as treating depression, but I've certainly eaten shrooms when feeling blue and ended up feeling better afterward. I wouldn't advocate anyone to do anything illegal, and these substances are probably not good for most people, but I can say that in my own life, I've had positive experiences with these substances.

edit; i've also taken shrooms and felt a lot lousier aftewards, but overall, i'd say i've had a positive experience with them. not for everyone and you shouldn't try drugs.

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This news is not surprising to me in the slightest. I`ve only had mushrooms once but I have to say it was a wholly positive experience with absolutely no fallout whatsoever.

I`m surprised that drugs, especially drugs like psilocybin and LSD, are still illegal in most parts of the world. It`s baffling that people don`t seem to accept the argument that making these things legal and controlling their distribution would solve a lot more problems than it could potentially cause.

But that`s a whole entire different discussion.

I really want a hit of acid now.

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Depression and anxiety are things I'd compare to addiction. Maybe they're in need of medical treatments, but they seem to sort of stand apart.

True, but addiction and anxiety and depression are all things that are already being treated with drugs in addition to (whatever the term is for talking to people in a clinical setting) therapy. Why not at least have the option of using all the chemicals out there as potential treatments if they are effective?

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LSD only causes problems with those who have a family history of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Personally, the acid trips I've had have been some of the happiest moments of my life. I never understood the whole "bad trip" thing, but I have seen people affected by them.

If you're excessively self conscious I would not recommend hallucinogens.

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Total travesty. Makes me think about ibogaine, and how some people started using it to treat heroin addicts "under the table".

I remember that too, and Hunter S. Thompson writing about that stuff.

Damn, I miss that guy...

Unless you are trying to park.

Something to keep your Avatar laughing-

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Guest Raidne

I think it's worth mentioning that street versions of whatever drug shouldn't be recommended for the self-medicated treatment of anything in the same way that a doctor's prescription for amphetamines to treat ADHD cannot be analogized to running out and scoring some crystal meth.

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