|
Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
Posts: 5,043
Loc: Perfidious Albion
|
Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History
#22036395 - 08/03/15 05:23 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
http://psypressuk.com/2015/07/30/professor-david-nutt-why-banning-lsd-and-magic-mushrooms-is-the-worst-censorship-of-medicine-in-world-history/
Professor David Nutt: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History
Speaking at Breaking Convention, a three-day conference held in London that aimed to explore the benefits of psychedelic drugs as medicines, amongst other topics, Professor David Nutt talked to me about his concerns on how the law is interfering with medical research and why LSD is still a problem child.
Professor David Nutt is to drug science what David Attenborough is to the natural world. A renowned neuropsychopharmacologist based at Imperial College, London, Professor Nutt is famed for sparking debates around illegal drugs and government policies. He is one of a few voices for the psychedelic community, and those researching banned substances, who speaks candidly about drugs by using science to back up what he says.
Hearing him talk at Breaking Convention about how laws are making it very difficult to research psychedelic drugs, makes it feel like the human race is missing out on something: a giant leap for medicine that politicians are happy to shun. When the idea that psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin (the compound found in magic mushrooms) can be used to treat a variety of mental health issues, such as addictions, anxiety and depression, why wouldn’t you want to delve into the rabbit hole of research, and see where it takes you?
Shrouded in red tape and a bad political reputation, LSD was banned in the UK and thrown into deep space in 1966. Roll forward nearly half a century and politicians still won’t change their stance on what could be the wonder drug for therapeutic practice, regardless of what positive findings have been produced.
“Politicians have this peculiar fear of LSD,” asserts Professor Nutt. “Albert Hoffman [the Swiss scientist who first synthesised the drug in 1938] said LSD was his ‘problem child’. There is no doubt it is still a problem child for very many politicians, for reasons that are historic, based on ignorance and on disinformation.”
Public opinion about the drug, which is notoriously associated with hippy culture, paints a different picture where psychedelics are more socially acceptable than the Government leads us to believe.
“One of the interesting things about psychedelics is that there is an enormous amount of sympathy in the general public to their use, particularly as medicines,” explains Professor Nutt. “A lot of people are very angry that they have been denied to the public as medicines for over 50 years. My own view is that this is the worst censorship of medicine and clinical research in the history of the world. If you really want to use [psychedelics] as medicine, it’s important to have a sound scientific underpinning.”
Professor Nutt and his team have been busy pioneering the use of techniques called ‘brain imaging’ to explore how psychedelics work in the brain. They have achieved three studies with psilocybin and have just completed the world’s first ever brain-imaging study with LSD, and the results are exciting for scientists, doctors and patients alike.
“We’ve [discovered] that these drugs have quite profound effects, for instance, they switch off the part of the brain that causes depression. Now we’re doing a trial using psilocybin to treat depression because we think where conventional treatments fail, psilocybin might work.”
But even though the outcome of these tests has proved quite promising, the stumbling blocks to this research are still present. The biggest and most obvious challenge is that these drugs are illegal. Only a very small handful of hospitals in the UK have permission to hold drugs like cannabis or psilocybin, which means Professor Nutt and his team can spend years of valuable time in getting extra permissions to do their work.
“The depression trial took three years to work through all the different regulations. We spent almost all the money we had just getting the drug and getting through those regulations,” explains Professor Nutt.
When you consider that a normal drug trial might take six months to get going, the research into psychedelics is very costly – at least 10 times that of other trials. And money doesn’t come easily. As the Government doesn’t stand by this line of research, crowdfunding has been one of the options to bring in the cash for this research. But when there’s lives at stake, isn’t it about time the Government turned their heads and tuned in their ears, instead of copping out whenever they catch wind that perhaps these so-called ‘bad drugs’ can actually be useful?
“The world needs to wake up to the potential of drugs like LSD and psilocybin, and also cannabis,” proclaims Professor Nutt. “These drugs have enormous potential. Every day that goes on with these drugs illegal, patients are suffering; patients are committing suicide because they are not getting treated for their depressions or their pain. So, it is a priority for medicine in the world to reverse these laws.”
|
pineapple3

Registered: 03/29/15
Posts: 547
Last seen: 3 years, 8 months
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: Mostly_Harmless] 2
#22036453 - 08/03/15 06:11 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
"Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, amen."
|
mrbart4444
The mycelium whisperer


Registered: 09/13/14
Posts: 2,266
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
#22036646 - 08/03/15 08:33 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
mushrooms just make us realize our delusions and how powerful or brain can really be but mushrooms melt that all away its like looking at life on a plank sleight with no wrong or right answers.
--------------------
|
Cognitive_Shift
CS actual




Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: mrbart4444]
#22037160 - 08/03/15 11:10 AM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
"By using science to back up what he says"
The author makes this sound like a new and brilliant idea.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
|
TNK
Pleasures of Africa



Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 14,237
Loc: I AM THUNDERBOT
Last seen: 1 month, 18 days
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#22037878 - 08/03/15 02:12 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
why wouldn’t you want to delve into the rabbit hole of research
I bet that sentence gave the writer of the article a raging boner.
Quote:
Cognitive_Shift said: "By using science to back up what he says"
The author makes this sound like a new and brilliant idea.
Indeed.
-------------------- Edited by TNK (02/22/22 22:22 PM)
|
LSDaytripper
Believer



Registered: 08/04/07
Posts: 649
Loc: Ohio
Last seen: 11 months, 8 days
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: TNK]
#22039365 - 08/03/15 07:54 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
“These drugs have enormous potential. Every day that goes on with these drugs illegal, patients are suffering; patients are committing suicide because they are not getting treated for their depressions or their pain. So, it is a priority for medicine in the world to reverse these laws.”
This is really all that needs to be said.
-------------------- ***** (10:42:46 PM): This is so strange ***** (10:42:53 PM): Becuase I feel that I am very altered ***** (10:42:57 PM): But at the same exact time ***** (10:43:28 PM): I am closer to the real me, the real me who decides who I am, the entire me
|
baraka



Registered: 07/15/00
Posts: 10,768
Loc: hyperspace
Last seen: 2 years, 26 days
|
Re: Why Banning LSD and Magic Mushrooms is the Worst Censorship of Medicine in World History [Re: LSDaytripper]
#22044552 - 08/04/15 09:05 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
|
|
DMT is the most profound experience a human can have
it is really fucking important
-------------------- This is the only time I really feel alive.
|
|