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James J. H. Rucker, a psychiatrist and honorary lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, has argued in a British Medical Journal (BMJ) article that psychedelics should be reclassified as schedule 2 compounds:
He explains that many trials of psychedelics published before prohibition, in the 1950s and 1960s, suggested "beneficial change in many psychiatric disorders".
However, research ended after 1967. In the UK psychedelic drugs were legally classified as schedule 1 class A drugs - that is, as having "no accepted medical use and the greatest potential for harm, despite the research evidence to the contrary," he writes.
Rucker points out that psychedelics remain more legally restricted than heroin and cocaine. "But no evidence indicates that psychedelic drugs are habit forming; little evidence indicates that they are harmful in controlled settings; and much historical evidence shows that they could have use in common psychiatric disorders."
In fact, recent studies indicate that psychedelics have "clinical efficacy in anxiety associated with advanced cancer, obsessive compulsive disorder, tobacco and alcohol addiction, and cluster headaches," he writes.
And he explains that, at present, larger clinical studies on psychedelics are made "almost impossible by the practical, financial and bureaucratic obstacles" imposed by their schedule 1 classification. Currently, only one manufacturer in the world produces psilocybin for trial purposes, he says, at a "prohibitive" cost of £100,000 for 1 g (50 doses).
[...] He concludes that psychedelics are neither harmful nor addictive compared with other controlled substances, and he calls on the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, "to recommend that psychedelics be reclassified as schedule 2 compounds to enable a comprehensive, evidence based assessment of their therapeutic potential."
[See also: Research into Psychedelics, Shut Down for Decades, is Now Yielding Exciting Results - Ed.]
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 31 2015, @01:26AM
(Not at the same time.)
However I would not support their recreational use.
Consider that LSD may be legally prescribed by Swiss psychiatrists. It's still manufactured there, by the company that acquired Sandoz.
I'll explain in more detail later, I need to take a break from the tubes just now.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday May 31 2015, @05:01AM
I'll explain in more detail later, I need to take a break from the tubes just now.
i assure that nobody doubts that you will, captain overshare.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 31 2015, @05:23AM
I think I would have done well to have left my computer at home, then taken the whole day off.
tl;dr: had really bad trips, came out of them, felt great for the first time in years.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:33PM
talking somebody out of a bad acid trip is one of the easiest things to do in the world. back when there used to be raves in my area i'd always inevitably run into a few people here and there having bad trips. literally 10 seconds is all it takes to talk somebody out of it. unfortunately there's no easy way to talk somebody out of bad tryptamine or phenethylamine trips but there's methods to mitigate anxiety and such until it turns back around.
if the potential for bad trips is the reason you don't support recreational use, better education and being around "experienced" users is all it takes; basically they'd just have to come with a warning "DO NOT USE ALONE".