The general public is starting to warm to the idea that psychedelics, just like marijuana, should be legalized, or, at the very least, removed from the Schedule I list. On April 16, 1943, a Swiss chemist by the name of Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested a drug he created five years earlier while working at Sandoz Laboratories and began to experience very unusual sensations and hallucinations. What eventually came to be known as psychedelic or psychedelic-assisted therapy was first pioneered in Canada by Abram Hoffer and Humphrey Osmond roughly a decade after Dr. Hofmann’s accidental LSD trip. Humphrey Osmond initially speculated that, by giving a high dose of LSD to individuals suffering from alcoholism, he could frighten them to the point where they would want to quit drinking.
However, much to Osmond’s surprise, all of the patients’ experiences on LSD were pleasant and, most importantly, transformative. Between 1954 and 1960, Osmond and Hoffer treated about 2,000 alcoholics with LSD and reported that 40–45 percent of them did not return to drinking after a year. The groundbreaking research in the nascent field of psychedelic therapy came to a halt in 1970 with the introduction of the Controlled Substances Act, which not only made the manufacturing, sale, and possession of LSD illegal, but categorized it as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning that it had no «currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse». In June of 1971, President Nixon declared a «war on drugs,» which further vilified LSD and other psychedelic substances to the point where most people considered them to be as addictive and deadly as heroin .
They brought us Nancy Reagan’s «Just Say No» campaign and the infamous «This Is Your Brain on Drugs» public service announcements.
At the same time, the rates of opioid addiction and overdose have continued to rise year after year. Further, virtually every statistic on mental health points to the fact that the US is facing a mental health crisis of unprecedented scale, and yet we have not seen any more breakthrough medicines in the psychiatric-drug industry since Prozac arrived on the market more than 30 years ago. Increasing evidence suggests that psychedelic medicines, such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin , can serve as a sort of «reset button» for the brain that gives individuals the tools they need to face and address their struggles in a constructive way. The most impressive resetting occurs with some of the strongest psychedelics.
More recently, Silicon Valley has started a trend of microdosing LSD and other psychedelic substances . The general public is starting to warm up to the idea that psychedelics, just like marijuana, should be legalized, or, at the very least, removed from the Schedule I list. Given the success of the early research into LSD, as well as the growing body of anecdotal evidence confirming its safety and efficacy, it is extremely likely that the various clinical trials currently in the pipeline will produce life-changing medicines. It is also clear that the general public is starting to warm up to the idea that psychedelics, just like marijuana, should be legalized, or, at the very least, removed from the Schedule I list.
Albert Hofmann used to call LSD his «problem child.» But shortly before his death in 2008, Dr. Hofmann learned that a medical trial of LSD was approved in his native Switzerland. He was truly overjoyed that, after three and a half decades, LSD was once again being recognized for its tremendous potential as a medicine. Eager to share his excitement with his friends, he told one of them that his «problem child had come home, had become a wonder child».
Source: Sasha Butts | Foundation for Economic Education
No comments:
Post a Comment