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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days
#14512389 - 05/25/11 10:22 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days May 25, 2011 - thebostonchannel.com
Research On Using Ecstasy, LSD For Pain On The Rise
BOSTON -- The death of a child is every parent's nightmare.
Marilyn Howell spent the last three months of her adult daughter's life trying to keep her from suffering in the end stages of cancer. The unconventional way she went about it is the subject of her self-penned book.
"She was just an incredibly bright light. And boy, did she not want to go," said Marilyn Howell about her daughter, Mara, who died five years ago from colon cancer. She was 32.
"Her pain was not manageable and everything in mainstream medicine had been tried," said Howell, who took care of Mara in hospice at her childhood Brookline home.
Mara and her mother chose an unconventional course: the drug MDMA, better known as Ecstasy.
"It was the best thing that happened at the end of her life. It took away her pain," said Howell.
The experience inspired Howell to write "Honor Thy Daughter" about Mara's journey, which included psychotherapy when using the mind-expanding illegal drug. Howell said further research will prove its benefits.
"I hope that other people like my daughter won't have to go underground or go without," she said.
In the '50s and '60s there were hundreds of medical studies exploring the benefits of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and "magic mushrooms" for anxiety and depression. Then came the war on drug abuse. But in recent years, research has resumed.
Dr. James Rathmell, chief of pain medicine at Mass General Hospital, says the non traditional drugs can be emotionally healing for some patients.
"They can produce this experience in the mind that can be extraordinarily life-changing for some people. Do they treat pain? Perhaps in the existential sense," said Rathmell.
But he errs on the side of caution.
"This group of drugs is so unpredictable. The experience can be extraordinarily different for different patients, and catastrophic in some cases. Patients could become suicidal or psychotic," said Rathmell.
But Howell believes MDMA gave her daughter the gift of being present for her death, without suffering. She believes it was a good death.
"All of the ticking and spasms and convulsions and labored breathing ceased," said Howell. "My daughter could be alert, out of pain and awake during episodes at the end of her life. It was loving life again and it was a beautiful passing."
"Honor Thy Daughter" is published by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
On the web: Honor Thy Daughter website
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AbstraKt_I_Am


Registered: 12/21/10
Posts: 1,898
Loc: Abroad.
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: veggie]
#14512983 - 05/25/11 11:58 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Great news. I see these drugs becoming legal for strictly controlled medical uses in the not too far future.
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Valafar
Striking for the gentle



Registered: 02/20/10
Posts: 155
Loc: Vermont/Maine
Last seen: 10 years, 4 months
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: AbstraKt_I_Am]
#14514547 - 05/26/11 10:47 AM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
AbstraKt_I_Am said: Great news. I see these drugs becoming legal for strictly controlled medical uses in the not too far future.
Legal for reckless uncontrolled face rolling please . But yes I hope to see them used for good some day soon
-------------------- "Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing"
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zepedamartin
I Use Mycotopia


Registered: 01/22/10
Posts: 184
Last seen: 2 months, 19 days
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: Valafar]
#14515231 - 05/26/11 01:02 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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That is such a beautiful story. I'm pretty sure that substance isnt as bad As "government scientist" make it out to be. Maybe there is a bright future Ahead...
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PsilocybinMike
T.F.Y.Q.A


Registered: 02/18/08
Posts: 2,602
Last seen: 7 years, 10 months
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: zepedamartin]
#14515415 - 05/26/11 01:43 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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How are there still people out there who can read something like that and still want to throw people like that in jail or at least arrest them and deny them those comforts in their dying days?
I think we CLEARLY need to end the war on drugs, and begin the war on ignorance. Sign me up.
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baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZBTAYm3rw
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: veggie]
#14515979 - 05/26/11 03:32 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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They should at least let people dying and in great pain like Mara have any drug they want.
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astroblack
Space Teen

Registered: 10/25/10
Posts: 208
Last seen: 12 years, 10 days
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: Le_Canard]
#14517245 - 05/26/11 07:32 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
ToiletDuk said: They should at least let people dying and in great pain like Mara have any drug they want.
...  ...
*beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppp*
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Comradez
stargazer



Registered: 03/21/10
Posts: 615
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
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Re: Psychedelic Drugs Help Daughter In Dying Days [Re: astroblack]
#14518135 - 05/26/11 10:13 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Jesus riding a dinosaur...a fitting motif to adorn the last moment of one's life.
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They say that life's a carousel / Spinning fast, you've got to ride it well / The world is full of kings and queens / Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams / It's heaven and hell - Ronnie James Dio (RIP)
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