For the first time in 40 years, Western scientists have begun to obtain permits to study the capabilities of LSD in the medical field. But since this substance is one of the most strictly controlled, this does not seem to be such a simple task.
When the American scientist David Nichols received his Ph.D. in medical chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1973, he thought he would continue to study hallucinogens until his last breath. “I thought I would do this work for the rest of my life,” he said in an interview with Popular Science magazine.
However, time dictated its conditions. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Substances Control Act, which provided for severe restrictions on the production and distribution of narcotic substances in the United States. According to this law, hallucinogenic substances such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin (a psychedelic alkaloid from mushrooms) and mescaline were assigned to the first category. Such substances were subject to the most severe restrictions, and their use in medicine was unacceptable. Marijuana was also included in this category of substances, and after 15 years ecstasy and MDMA joined it. On the other hand, cocaine, opium and morphine at that time belonged to the second category, which means that they could be purchased by prescription.
The reasons for such harsh measures by the authorities seem quite understandable, if you scroll through the memory of those decades when psychedelic substances were widely available. For example, according to recently declassified documents, in the fifties the CIA evacuated several scientists from Nazi Germany who achieved great success in studying the brain using psychotropic drugs. All this became the basis for a project called MK-ULTRA, in which the CIA, with the help of LSD and similar substances, wanted to develop a mechanism for controlling the human mind. When, after a few years, the news of this project and the inhumane experiments conducted by scientists reached the White House, a major scandal broke out, and the authorities began to think about a ban on the use of such substances.
Another wake-up call sounded in the sixties when the beatniks and the hippies who followed them supported the psychedelic revolution, which began with the legendary scientist Timothy Leary. Watching this total and incessant trip, the authorities realized that hallucinogenic substances must be put under the strictest control.
Despite the fact that scientists managed to achieve promising results in experiments on psychedelics in the treatment of alcoholism and psychiatric diseases, as well as in modeling diseases of the nervous system, by the beginning of the seventies the government tightened control over substances of the first category even for research purposes. And only recently, American authorities began to realize that this drug can be turned into a very effective medicine.
From the beginning of the nineties the situation began to change, and in the last decade, scientists are increasingly getting permission to conduct clinical experiments on people using psychedelic substances. Thanks to this, it was possible to achieve impressive results that confirm that substances such as MDMA can effectively treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, and classical psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin help fight critical nervous disorders and treat alcohol dependence. However, there are still many obstacles in the way of such experiments.
David Nichols recalls that when he defended his dissertation on a topic related to psychedelic substances, he very quickly realized: “If you want to destroy your scientific career, do research on psychedelics.” To some extent, these words are relevant now, since it is very difficult for scientists working in this field to receive funding. As an outstanding professor, Nichols for 30 years had the opportunity to receive grants and study how these drugs affect the human body and mind. However, he was required that the conclusions of the studies be aimed at proving the dangers of drugs, and not at studying their medical properties.
Nevertheless, in the early nineties, the situation was reversed when the Drug Enforcement Administration weakened its control, which allowed us to start research involving not only animals, but also people. After years of lobbying at the level of the US government, psychiatrist Rick Strassman got the opportunity to begin studying the effects of the psychedelic composition of DMT on the human body.
A few years later, Professor Charles Grob of the Heffter Research Institute received permission to conduct a small experiment using psilocybin. After a six-month course of taking psychedelic, volunteers noted a significant reduction in irritability, and some suicidal patients were relieved of this mania.
Despite the obvious achievements in these studies, the process of introducing psychedelics into medicine is far from smooth, and there are several reasons for this. Firstly, regulatory authorities force scientists to obtain many licenses and permits, which takes a lot of time. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, issuing such a permit requires an average of nine months, although scientists are more skeptical.
The second reason is even more commonplace. Psychedelic drugs are not high-tech, so they are of no interest to pharmaceutical companies that simply do not want to participate in this. Since psychedelic substances cannot be patented, that is, none of them is unique in composition, there can be no question of any competition between manufacturers. In other words, pharmaceutical companies simply do not see any opportunities for making money here.
Organizations, such as the Heffter Institute, are funded by private investors and do not have the means to conduct costly large-scale experiments involving people that could give the most accurate results. Nichols hopes that in the next decade, the state will still want to allocate more funds for larger studies of the effects of psychedelics, if the small projects that are being implemented show serious and important results for science.
“There is a movement toward taking advantage of all the benefits that psychedelic drugs offer,” he says.
In other countries, similar studies are also underway and also face tangible legal obstacles. For example, in the UK and Switzerland, attempts are being made to experiment with psychedelics, but it’s too early to talk about any successes. In early April, British scientists began testing psilocybin as a means of fighting depression, but authorities demanded that the drug used in the experiment comply with the standard of good manufacturing practice. As a result, the project was suspended, because scientists could not find a company that could produce psilocybin in accordance with the mentioned standard.
Despite the obstacles, for some researchers the opportunity to cure some of the most terrible ailments of mankind (alcoholism, depression and nervous breakdowns) makes administrative obstacles associated with the legalization of the use of psychedelic drugs highly justified and worth the effort. A three-day conference “Psychedelic Science 2013”, organized by the Heffler Research Institute, will be held this week in Auckland, California. Within the framework of this conference, about 1,600 scientists from around the world will exchange experience gained as a result of their research.
According to scientists, the problems that pursue psychedelic science will be resolved over time, as a new generation of interested scientists has entered the arena. There are many researchers and therapists who have worked in the sixties and seventies. However, today more and more students and scientists are coming to science who are not afraid to study the medical properties of narcotic drugs and are ready to investigate their effect in search of means to cure complex diseases, including epidemics.
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment