Psychedelics in the News

Starting a thread were we can post news articles and journal entries etc. about psychedelics.

Emerging from the Drug War Dark Age: LSD and Other Psychedelic Medicines Make a Comeback : http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/90958/?ses=f988a6c3ee14dd5bc68f73eeb2caf5ba

Interesting article, although from a US point of view. Also, I wonder what people here thing of the idea of psychedelics having a PR overhaul as "western medicine" for mental illnesses and conditions, such as alcoholism,and not as entheogen or recreational drug.

RTE drivetime is discussing LSD as medicine right now. I can't listen online myself, but if anyone sees this thread in time, check it out, and report back

http://www.rte.ie/news/

You can listen to that interview again here

http://www.rte.ie/news/drivetime/

More from the same story..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2545731/Drugs-like-LSD-and-Ecstasy-could-help-terminally-ill.html

Drugs like LSD and Ecstasy 'could help terminally ill'


Psychedelic
drugs such as LSD and Ecstasy could be used to help patients with
terminal illness and mental disorders, if scientific trials prove
successful.










By Graham Tibbetts

Last Updated: 12:51PM BST 12 Aug 2008






Little research has been carried out into the potential benefits of hallucinogens since they came to prominence in the 1960s.But scientists are now beginning to explore their capabilities in relation to a wide range of illnesses and conditions.The
first clinical trial involving LSD since the 1970s began in Switzerland
in June with the aim of using "psychedelic psychotherapy" to help
terminally ill patients come to terms with imminent death to improve
the quality of their remaining life.Eight subjects will receive
200 micrograms of LSD - enough to induce a powerful psychedelic
experience - and four will be given 20 micrograms. They will then be
assessed for anxiety levels, quality of life and pain levels.Researchers
are also investigating Ecstasy, the street name for MDMA, as a possible
treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.The active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, has shown promising results in helping people who are dying from cancer.A
study by Charles Grob, professor of psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA
Medical Centre, involved giving a psilocybin treatment to 12 patients.
One, Pamela Sakuda, who has colorectal cancer and had lost hope,
reported reaching an "epiphany" when she realised during the treatment
that her fear of the disease was destroying the time she had left.The
research, which has yet to be published, follows work at the John
Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, in which 36 healthy
volunteers aged 24 to 64 were given psilocybin then observed in the
laboratory.When they were interviewed again 14 months later 58
per cent rated the experience among the five most personally meaningful
of their lives and 64 per cent said it had increased their well-being.Prof
Roland Griffiths, who published the study, told the Guardian: "The
working hypothesis is that if psilocybin or LSD can occasion these
experiences of great personal meaning and spiritual significance ...
then it would allow [patients with terminal illnesses] hopefully to
face their own demise completely differently - to restructure some of
the psychological angst that so often occurs concurrently with severe
disease."