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posted by janrinok on Sunday May 31 2015, @12:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the wow-just-look-at-those-colours dept.

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.]


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  • (Score: 1) by redneckmother on Sunday May 31 2015, @02:46AM

    by redneckmother (3597) on Sunday May 31 2015, @02:46AM (#190290)

    I took acid once, and only once.

    Because of the limited potency, the manufacturer had added strychnine to give the "kick" into the "high".

    The worst thing about the experience was the next day - I had a terrible metal taste in my mouth, muscle cramps, and a monstrous headache.

    I don't regret taking it, and am thankful for the experience. It was wonderful to listen to Pink Floyd's "Animals", in my head, note for note, without having a stereo in the room.

    --
    Mas cerveza por favor.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Sir Finkus on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:12AM

    by Sir Finkus (192) on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:12AM (#190293) Journal

    Are you sure it was LSD? Sounds more like 25i-NBOME, especially the metallic taste. Both drugs have similar effects, but LSD is tasteless. 25i-NBOME and other research chemicals are often passed off as LSD because it is cheaper.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by redneckmother on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:23AM

      by redneckmother (3597) on Sunday May 31 2015, @03:23AM (#190298)

      Dunno. This was back in the late '70s, and it was purple microdot. I took two hits on the advice of the guy who gave it to me.

      --
      Mas cerveza por favor.
      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:07AM

        if you took enough LSD that you could actually taste it, you'd still be in intergalactic space.

        By the seventies and especially now there are many hallucinogenic chemicals but LSD has the name recognition.

        A metallic taste though could arise for reasons other than the actual drug; you could hallucinate the taste for example. I once put my hand in my pocket then realized there were too many fingers in there.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @11:32AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @11:32AM (#190379)

          "if you took enough LSD that you could actually taste it, you'd still be in intergalactic space."

          A massive dose does not last days.

          • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:56PM

            in fact there is a maximum effective dose that is determined by the number of serotonin receptors in your brain; once an LSD molecule is in every single one of them eating more acid has no effect.

            I once had six uniformed with guns and shiny badges police officers howling with laughter when I told them of a friend I once had who dropped seventy hits so as to experimentally verify this theory.

            While serotonin receptors do come and go due to brain plasticity, they don't do so very quickly.

            --
            Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @10:52AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @10:52AM (#190634)

              Once you've taken a receptor-saturating dose, any more taken past that extends duration.

  • (Score: 2) by tathra on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:17PM

    by tathra (3367) on Sunday May 31 2015, @06:17PM (#190454)

    Because of the limited potency, the manufacturer had added strychnine to give the "kick" into the "high".

    thats nothing but a bullshit myth [erowid.org] that keeps getting repeated by ignorant people, just like the similarly bullshit [erowid.org] "lsd stays in your body forever" myth.