Beginning in the nineteen-fifties, psychedelics had been used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including alcoholism and end-of-life anxiety. The American Psychiatric Association held meetings centered on LSD. Some of the best minds in psychiatry had seriously studied these compounds in therapeutic models, with government funding.
Between 1953 and 1973, the federal government spent four million dollars to fund a hundred and sixteen studies of LSD, involving more than seventeen hundred subjects. Through the mid-nineteen-sixties, psilocybin and LSD were legal and remarkably easy to obtain. Sandoz, the Swiss chemical company, gave away large quantities of Delysid—LSD—to any researcher who requested it, in the hope that someone would discover a marketable application.
Now, forty years after the Nixon Administration effectively shut down most psychedelic research, the government is gingerly allowing a small number of scientists to resume working with these powerful and still somewhat mysterious molecules.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday February 11 2015, @05:40PM
There's a pretty good BBC documentary that coincidentally I watched last weekend called "The Beyond Within" with basically the same story despite being from '86 not '15
By the same story, there are certain cyclical stories that appear in the news but they aren't really news. Coincidentally there's a 5 year cycle of "LSD use growing on campus" fake news story.
I haven't researched enough to find out if this is just cyclical murmuring or a real change.
I was on a documentary binge while working in the lab last week, another weird, recommended one to listen to while working is "The G I Revolt".
The BBC doc is a BBC doc, so instead of blowing money american style on expensive historical re-enactments and endless repetition for 5 year old viewers, its all interview footage with people who were actually there and newsreel footage. Its not some History Channel shite about hitler or jesus or both, it really is worth watching.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11 2015, @06:05PM
Coincidentally there's a 5 year cycle of "LSD use growing on campus" fake news story.
This article has nothing to do with that scare story.
This is about controlled lab research, not kids dropping acid and listening to pink floyd.