LSD-Like Drugs Are Out of the Haze and Back in the Labs

Autoplay videos are the surge of the Internet.

My drug-taking days are long over with, and for the better or worse that I turned out, I don't regret them. I can honestly say that I never saw the world as clearly, literally or figuratively, as I did after taking acid. I liken it to looking at the same scene as painted by an Impressionist (straight) and comparing it to one painted by Rousseau (tripping). Back then, people used to joke that President Johnson or Nixon should take it. Of course, the danger is that seeing things so clearly would often lead to confusion or panic. That's a problem even without drugs, but I think the benefit to society would be great if everyone did it, at least once, with a good guide.

"Officially taboo" are words that make no sense together.

Like marijuana, psychedelics have demonstrated benefits. These drugs should be "officially acceptable" subjects of research in medicine.

It's not the drugs that need rehab, it's the drug warriors, who think alcohol and tobacco are safe enough to be legal, but cannabis and psychedelics aren't. Psychedelics are used for inner exploration, and bans on adults using them are unacceptable, it's like banning mountain climbing because it's too dangerous.

It's impossible to educate people on safe use practices, when your only goal is to demonize a substance, and scare people away from using at all.

"today’s scientists want to be seen as the anti-Learys. Their experiments bear no resemblance to the freestyle acid-dropping of the ’60s. Patients are screened and prepped on what they may expect, and then closely monitored."
What does this author mean Anti-Leary's ???
This is exactly what Timothy Leary wanted and testified before congress as "The" way to address Psychedelics. Timothy Leary became aware that Congress was going to squash awareness of these spiritual sacraments. The choice was clear for one who loved freedom. Shout it from the rooftops as opposed to more endless ages of darkness. Listen to the Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "It's all too much"
Spirituality evolved using these sacraments. The holy Eucharist of the Christian church is but a placebo shadow of the original sacrament.
Only the ritual remains. Its God like messenger nailed to a cross and his followers hunted down in the Roman Catacombs by the original DEA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxDZW6n69-0

I know of people who were never the same after tripping on acid in the 60's. Not everyone is well put together enough to take acid.

No only is LSD non-addictive, LSD has been shown in study after study to actually treat addiction and alcoholism.

The fact that LSD is non-toxic (no risk of overdose) and non-addicitve means it should be made legal.

Great arcticle!....but:
The problem with medicine based topics is everybody has an opinion and thinks he/she's an expert just because he/she read a few articles. But pharmaceuticals is in fact a very technical, very complex field of study that requires multiple years of college/university just to get the basics.
Hearing a talk show host (even a good one like colbert) making generalized claims is actually hurting the trust in safe, well researched therapies that can minder the positve effects of a drug (nocebo effect).

In its designation of these drugs as Schedule 1, the government indeed has become a nanny state, a rigid, uninformed nanny state.

Any tool to help us cope with existential questions ought to be embraced and promoted. Living life with blinders on, or based on illusions, is the fate of most, but need not be.

Nice to see the picture of Ken Kesey's bus taken back in the 1960's. I lived in Eugene, Or and the surrounding area until about 7 years ago, for about 18 years and have seen his bus many times, its still well preserved and roams around making special stops for the local public. Kesey(who went ot Springfield, Or High School) and Jerry Garcia lived in Pleasant Hill, Or. which is just outside of Eugene, his second wife and family still live there as far as i know. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/16/us/jerry-garcia-s-second-wife-wins-rul... A real hippie area, sort of. Now the "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" can proceed without it being busted.

This article describes what I take to be a very hopeful development. The vast majority of the drugs used by the medical profession in our society serve to dull awareness in one way or another. That certainly may be necessary in many cases, but it's well past time to start looking at applications for drugs that heighten awareness. Hallucinogens certainly fall into that category.

One small quibble with the article: this is the second account I've recently come across which presents Timothy Leary as the most important or even sole popularizer of psychedelic drugs in the 60s. At the very least, it seems odd not mention his co-experimenter at Harvard--Richard Alpert/Ram Dass. Ram Dass was at least as influential and, to my mind, is a far more compelling and trustworthy figure. And while "trustworthy" would not necessarily be the first term that comes to mind with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, surely their influence should be noted as well.

I realize the focus of this article is not primarily historical, but still the account of the psychedelic movement could be a little fuller and more accurate.

Pergolide - LSD, Nabalone - THC, Ritalin - methamphetamine, morphine - opium; there are already lots of medicinal drugs derived from recreational drugs. The difference is that careful clinical trials have been carried out, the concentration of the active component is know, and the purity is meticulously established. I have no idea why anyone would choose to buy a recreational drug on the street - they have no they are really buying.

Taken in the right spirit LSD can be a very constructive experience. It is a dramatic demonstration to any of us that our perceptions and definitions of reality are extremely subjective and not to be taken for granted. By the same token, it is also and experience that goes through a series of identifiable stages and then diminishes, which is instructive of itself.

I do not recommend it, however, for people who determinedly believe that terrorist are about to invade and destroy America with their ISIS funded cell phones.

I'm glad to see scientists starting to research these drugs again and suspect they will turn out to have useful applications in healthcare.

But what's wrong with just enjoying the experience of a good trip? Unless they're dangerously toxic in some way, I see no reason for these drugs to be illegal. Let people enjoy themselves.

American culture is swimming in hallucinations produced by corporate culture--we provide fake psychedelic vision in order to maintain a mind-control regime that marches us in formation (while pretending to be independent) towards, not the American Dream, but the Ugly Live. Psychedelics allow us to see through the Ugly Life mentality and that's why it is so dangerous and why it is banned. Not that indiscriminate use of these substances would be a good thing--there are many problems we have not had a chance to address or consider chance to government repression. Eventually, we have to reject the notion that life has to be hard, cruel, punitive and all about "hard work." We need to go deeper and the government hates that whether its drugs or asking questions in classrooms.

Mental/spiritual disorders might very well be manifestations of suppressed existential terror; and the confrontation with nonexistence (abruptly after a cancer diagnosis) is in some ways a failure of imagination. Psychedelics allow one to project an afterlife into the void.

Death with Dignity laws, like the one we have here in Oregon, should allow doctors to provide these drugs to alleviate mental and spiritual suffering in the same way they prescribe drugs to end all physical suffering.

Just for perspective, there was a group of 'researchers' exploring psychedelic molecules in the Bay Area some years ago under the guidance of a noted psychiatrist, Alexander Shulgin and his wife/ colleague, Ann. They chronicled their work in the book, PIHKAL (phenethyl amines I have known and loved) A Chemical Love Story, published in 1991. There is even a Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PiHKAL. The book is still available.

The chemical class of phenethyl amines includes a number of psychoactive substances, mescaline, MDMA, DMDMA and others along with stimulants such as methamphetamine.

I knew a number of participants in the Shulgin group and as I understand, they would collectively use their experience and expertise in chemistry to make new molecules to pharmaceutical standards of purity and quality. They then would convene a 'study' at a site in the Bay Area, most likely at Shulgin's home, where the new substance would be evaluated by committee. Members would take a dose or doses and report their perceptions to one member of the committee who remained undosed (think designated driver). Overall the group was pretty scientific in their methods.

Overall, this research was similar to the work of Albert Hoffman in his discovery of LSD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann). There have always been creative chemists with keen scientific insight and skills who have been interested in self medication. Look at the Fentanyl work in 80s.

"If carefully administered...hallucinogens can reorient patients’ perceptions of their place in the universe and pull them out of ruts of negative thinking."

My exploration of LSD began at Grateful Dead concerts but moved into the wider world as is the course of intelligent experimentation. I would take a tiny amount, 1/8-1/4 of a tab, and go out on my own to explore the city, art/science museums, historic landmarks, crowds, nature, and more. The key was extreme care and moderation but the rewards revolutionized my mind and spirit. Acid brought me out of a damaged evangelical Christian childhood and into understanding and acceptance of a brilliantly complex world I was told to shun. It took me out of limiting states of mind and above the din and fray of my programming where I could clearly see my place in the Universe.

LSD taught me to embrace the unknown and revel in Life. I would not be the person I am today without it. In fact, given the Fox News-like mentality of my church-school, I can safely say I wouldn't be a progressive New York Times reader if it weren't for acid. It's easy to see why Christians and authoritarians fear it so; the spurning of complex realities and need for obsessive control dissolve away in the aftermath of a good trip.

This country would have been in a much better place had we empowered researchers, therapists, and mature seekers to fully explore its potential. It's a crime against higher consciousness that it remains a Schedule I drug.

I hate to be too hopeful - this is a very rigid society when it comes to drugs that affect how we think - especially if anyone admits to feeling better after taking them. But this does sound ( in other reports as well) as though it may have great promise for at least some chronic depression. What it does, I don't understand, but it does seem to move people to a different view of living. I did meet a couple of people way back who had used LSD and had flashbacks, which were not in their control and not what they were wanted. Providing a pure substance, in a controlled amount and setting may be the key. At anyrate, this revives the positive hope for what mind altering drugs may provide.

This article, like many others on science in the popular press, is much too focused on potential applications of psychedelic drug use. I am skeptical that they have all that much therapeutic potential, but their effects on the mind are fascinating and understanding how they act would probably provide a lot of insight. If we pursue human brain and mental health research nationally, understanding how these drugs affect the brain and mind should be included as one small approach.

Interesting. It certainly seems that there is value in studying these drugs, more for trying to understand the human mind than to develop any cure; they're the palliative.

That they were banned goes back to Nixon days when there was the fear that society would lose its rational responsibility. Nixon was the complete example of rational responsibility. True, some died from using LSD; no one has ever died from using alcohol which is an accepted drug.

It's good to see someone in anguish benefit from a treatment. Ms. Marcy is right, we can gain a fundamental understanding of what is valuable in our lives. Back in the Nixon days, it was threatening to conservative individuals to attain a greater understanding of oneself. Don't forget, we were coming out of the age in which family members would not mention the word cancer in a conversation about a family member's illness. At that time we couldn't love people the way Jesus wanted, we had to kill people in a war. And with that and other disparaging social stigmata, LSD burst upon the scene. Its users rebelled against hurtful cultural attitudes.

There is no magic, but if these pharmaceuticals can help someone get around a debilitating problem, then they are of value to our civilization. Our culture is still a mess, but it may be exploration that can get us out of it.

Turning on, for most people, is only available method for tuning in so they travel together. But the dropping out has been misconstrued. For the young, those beginning life, getting a clean ethical and emotional start is very important. The admonition made in the 60s by Dr. Leary, was pointing to the overwhelming power of the social message of the time, especially as it had been so effectively honed by the world powers over the past century, being mostly war propaganda and then more and more marketing. Poison for the soul. So Leary said drop it. "Drop out." "Walk out." Don't become a thrall. Don't become a slave in the torrent of your time.