The idea itself goes a way back in psychedelic history when LSD was used by Dr Humphry Osmond to treat alcoholism. And alcoholism is a symptom of PTSD. Sometimes. Sometimes it is a symptom of something else. In any case the treatment of PTSD with psychedelics is gaining ground.
Let’s say an abuse-ridden childhood has left you with PTSD that sparks panic whenever you hear shouts, even on TV. Or let’s say a bad accident has saddled you with crippling anxiety and chronic pain. Now let’s say that you could ease — or even cure — these woes with prescription psiloscybin.
Prescription ecstasy. Prescription LSD.
If a growing phalanx of scientists get their way, those prescriptions could be yours within 10 years. Research into the medical benefits of psychedelic drugs is booming. An April conference on the subject at Great Britain’s University of Kent featured lectures on such topics as “Ketamine Psychotherapy” and “Ayahuasca in the Contemporary World.”
Leading this wave is the Boston-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), whose executive director Rick Doblin spoke at that conference. MAPS researchers have spent 15 years conducting international clinical trials whose results indicate that LSD and psilocybin counteract depression and anxiety and are effective pain-management tools while MDMA (ecstasy) conquers fear. Just this month, the Israeli Ministry of Health approved a new MAPS study using MDMA to treat PTSD.
It just frosts me that the War On Drugs has stymied this research for at least 3 decades. I think of all the Veterans this could have helped. Not to mention victims of child abuse.
When the Drug War goes down it is going to take a LOT of smug *holes down with it. You know, the “save the children and f* the adults crowd”. If only they went after child abuse with the same vigor they went after drugs we wouldn’t need a Drug War. Of course I would council that the Government stay out of it all and let the people solve their own problems. But that would make me a radical. A George Washington or perhaps Thomas Jefferson type. Of course George had to deal with a Whiskey Rebellion. So maybe government interference with the use of mind altering drugs is not exactly new. Although the government of that time was smart enough to avoid banning alcohol altogether. That effort was saved for a later band of geniuses who appear to be informing the current band of geniuses on the usefulness of Drug Prohibition.
More Israeli research into PTSD: PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System
Cross Posted at Power and Control
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6 responses to “Prescription Psychedelics”
There is a huge group you’re leaving out when it comes to PTSD — victims of domestic abuse. Include victims of domestic abuse (not just women, but also children and men) and those who have survived “ordinary” accidents.
The “war on drugs” encompasses much more than the fact that certain drugs are deemed illegal or controlled substances. Use of legal drugs for reasons different than that which they are prescribed for is also termed “drug abuse” and anyone who does that is deemed a “drug abuser”.
I am technically a drug abuser. And that is true beyond my acknowledged (and so far, legally approved, addiction to cigarettes). I have a prescription for a controlled substance that “technically” I’m only supposed to use for travel-related anxiety. Yep, I’m afraid of flying.
Since I’ve used this drug on other anxiety-producing occasions, I’m abusing it. Technically. And that’s enough for law enforcement.
The reality is that I’m a fairly normal person. While I keep this drug on hand, 15 pills will last me a year or more.
And then… you get to the people who have use controlled substances, even those substances they’ve obtained legally to try to commit suicide.
They are instantly deemed addicts and in need of chemical dependency treatment.
It’s not just the laws that designate certain substances as “illegal” that must be fought against, but also the psychiatric treatment model that defines “drug abuse” that must be resisted.
Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine have been humanity’s most favored drugs of choice for centuries. I’d say our tea and coffee are mostly safe unless you happen to be a pregnant or breast-feeding woman.
Nicotine is more feared by researchers than marijuana is… and may have more therapeutic effects. But we won’t know because it’s “bad”. Bad… bad… bad.
George was ticked at the rebels because they were taking arms when they should’ve turned to the ballot box. That’s what the revolution was all about, the right to be heard without having to take up arms against perceived acts of tyranny.
BTW, the rebels managed to avoid getting caught, and turned to bootlegging to avoid the whiskey tax. A protest, but not a rebellion.
In 1965 I was a first year graduate student at the University of Kansas, doing a field placement at the Veterans Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. I was assigned to work with alcoholic veterans and their families. Dr. Karl Menninger of the Menninger Foundation in Topeka was at the height of his influence. Psychiatrists from all over the world came to Topeka to study under him and many of them also had field placements at the V.A. Hospital. The psychiatrists would sit with the alcoholic patient while the patient did an LSD trip. Most of them reported that they liked the LSD better than the alcohol!
I did a lot of psychedelics in my youth, and I believe they did some psychological damage. But I think it can cut either way, really, depending on the mindset of the user and the company they “trip” with.
The inventor of ecstasy, Alexander Shulgin, has recently written a book about his experiments that also includes instructions for making many of the 200+ drugs he invented. It’s called PIKHAL: A Chemical Love Story. Buy it before its banned!
Sorry, I got my acronym wrong in the previous post. PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story.
At Amazon:
Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story