Pubdate: Tue, 28 Oct 2014
Source: Link, The (CN QU Edu)
Copyright: 2014 The Link
Contact:  http://www.thelinknewspaper.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2694
Author: Gonzo Nieto

A PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE

New Research on Psychedelics Is Unveiling Their Potential for
Healing

As university students, we know how prevalent substance use
is.

It's practically impossible to go through your degree (or your day)
without being exposed to the use of coffee, energy drinks, alcohol,
cigarettes, pot, Ritalin or other drugs for a variety of reasons
ranging from partying to relaxing to studying.

In our daily lives, the social acceptability of particular drugs is
based heavily on stigma and the law, rather than on a sober evaluation
of their effects and harms.

It's perfectly acceptable for me to boast to my friends about how
drunk I got on the weekend, but I'll get weird looks and an
uncomfortable response from the same people for wanting to talk about
a profound and meaningful experience I had while on LSD, and this is
despite the fact that LSD is far less harmful than alcohol.

The word "drug" itself often keeps us from developing a more nuanced
understanding of these substances. This is a term that places
cannabis, heroin and MDMA into the same category, despite their
radically different effects and harm profiles.

In political dialogue, the term "drugs" is Orwellian; it's a
scare-tactic word that lumps the good with the bad and the ugly.

However, the last several years in the United States have seen this
perspective challenged at least in the case of cannabis. Its medical
and therapeutic applications are gaining recognition, and legal
restrictions on its use have been relaxed in more than a dozen states.

It can be argued that psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin (magic)
mushrooms, mescaline and ayahuasca, are in a similar situation. The
current legal classification holds that they are potential drugs of
abuse with no medical or therapeutic application, but a lot of
research in the 1950s and '60s investigated these very applications
and had promising results.

In recent years, the scientific study of these mind-altering
substances has been revived, with scientists picking up lines of
research that stopped dead in their tracks decades ago as a result of
governments' focus on the criminalization of these drugs. Their
findings are very exciting, both inside and outside of medical and
therapeutic contexts.

Some research explores the potential of psychedelics, when
administered in a supportive setting, to spark profound spiritual or
mystical experiences characterized by a sense of sacredness, a feeling
of unity or interconnectedness, and feelings of transcending the self
or ego. Such an experience is powerful and often very significant for
the individual who's had it. If approached properly, it can be a
source of positive change in a person's life.

A promising therapeutic use of psychedelics lies in individuals with
anxiety related to life-threatening illness. A recent study that
administered LSD to this population found that, even several months
later, participants reported significant improvements in their
anxiety, depression and overall quality of life, as well as reductions
in their fear of death. Other research teams have had similar results
with psilocybin.

Psychedelics may also have therapeutic potential in the treatment of
addiction. Past studies had some success in using LSD in the context
of therapy to treat alcohol abuse, with improvements sometimes lasting
as long as six months.

A number of studies around the world have used MDMA to treat PTSD in
war veterans and victims of violence and sexual assault. The results
are inspiring, with many participants experiencing significant
improvements or resolution of their symptoms. As well, a protocol has
now been approved in the U.S. for the use of MDMA in therapy to treat
social anxiety in autistic adults.

Psychedelics may also act as creative catalysts. One notable example
is Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Kary Mullis, who has said he
seriously doubts whether he'd have made the discovery for which he was
recognized if he hadn't taken LSD.

We can support the research taking place by reading and talking about
it, and contributing to it if we can do so. Recent crowd-funding
efforts for psychedelic research have been rather successful, and
there are sure to be more in the future.

What can we do on a personal level? Start by acknowledging and then
challenging what we think we know.

The mindset regarding drugs is similar to sex: if we're not
well-informed, the first thing to do is educate ourselves in order to
sort the facts from the stigma and sensational preconceived
notions-and to ensure our safety.

Seek out information on substances that you're curious about; ask
friends that have experience with these substances, or spend some time
reading the endless trip reports that exist on sites like Erowid to
get a better idea of what the subjective experience is like on a
particular substance.

Most importantly, talk. I try to challenge drug stigmas by writing
articles like these and enabling conversations with the people around
me, and I urge you to do the same.
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MAP posted-by: Matt