Psychedelics:
Leading
Medical
Journal
Calls
for
More
LSD
in
Research
Labs
4/21/06
A leading British medical journal, the Lancet, has called on researchers studying the brain and conditions like depression to experiment with psychedelics. In an editorial appearing in the April 15 edition, the journal argued that "the demonization of psychedelic drugs as a social evil" has stifled research that could expand the knowledge of the brain and lead to better treatment for such conditions. "Once considered wonder drugs for their effects on anxiety, depression, alcoholism, and other mental illnesses, [psychedelics like LSD and Ecstasy] have been effectively banished from medical practice after legal rulings banned their sale and use," the editorial noted. "Although such bans were largely put in place to quash concerns about rampant recreational drug use fueling the counter cultures of the 1960s and 1980s (LSD and MDMA, respectively), criminalization of these agents has also led to an excessively cautious approach to further research into their therapeutic benefits." In an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian, Lancet editor Dr. Richard Horton said early researchers who used the drugs on themselves made important advances, but that progress had been stopped by the post-1960s anti-drug backlash. "Our very earliest understanding of the neurochemistry of the brain came from studying LSD-like compounds. Those same researchers were also taking those drugs, not recreationally, but as experiments on themselves. This was immensely important work." Bans on psychedelic research based on fears of mass consumption are blocking good science, said Horton. "The whole taboo around recreational drug use can make the study of these drugs very difficult," he said. "We need to get a balance between these social taboos and what's best for patients." The Guardian also spoke with Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group pushing for more research on psychedelics and sponsoring two experimental studies with Ecstasy as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The notion that research should be barred for fearing of encouraging recreational use of psychedelics is wrong, he said. "The idea that by contradicting the exaggerated propaganda you are somehow sending the wrong message is false," he said. "Kids know when they are being told something that is way exaggerated, but then they don't know what is the truth."
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