Wednesday 1 August 2012

Kids on LSD? Let is be...

Long the main stay of artists and hippies, LSD has gained a terrible reputation over the years as being a drug associated with long term psychosis and a disastarous effect on the development of personalities in people. LSD is extracted from the ergot fungus which grows in Rye and was first developed as a drug used to treat psychiatric patients in the 1940’s , however this was not met with much success. During the 1960’s, the CIA set up project MK Ultra to look into the effect the drugs may have on covert operations and as the effects were temporary there would be very little evidence afterwards of the drug in the system of the victim. The project was later abandoned after the unreliability of the drug and potentially the instability of the drug with it being subject to being destroyed quite easily by sunlight and oxygen, but should LSD be written off completely?

A recent article on theverge.com website caught my attention where the author claims to have hacked his brain with an amphetamine called Adderall. In the article he cites how he took on new skills with new vigour after the drug enabled him to take on a new software package he wanted to upskill in. Does the same benefits apply to LSD or are there even more benefits? Read first on the uses of it medically and then creativelly below...

A 1950’s study of alcholocism in the UK came to the conclusion that LSD may be able to treat alcoholics a lot more successfully than the programme run by such rehabilitation units such as the AA etc. Rates of success in treatment of alcoholics using LSD was 50% vis a vis 10% with the success rate of AA (please see Wikipedia and accompanying links for more info). A 1960’s study by Eric Kaast also came to the conclusion that LSD had as much effect as that of opiates when given to cancer patients at a low dosage.The writer Aldous Huxley asked for a dosage on his death bed when he found out that he was dying from cancer and passed away peacefully in his bed having beign given an injection allegedly. Keeping this in mind this is just one of the benefits being touted alongside spiritual and creative needs (think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles).The doors that can be opened through this drug are immense. DNA amplification was allegedly found through the discoverer being influenced through the use of LSD (Kary Mullins) (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015) and the same article discusses a programmer who claims he finds ways around programming issues through the use of the drug.

Users of the drugs have reported suffering from flashbacks however there is a lot of evidence that LSD and flashbacks are susceptible to the settings at the time and the mindframe of the person. Literature suggests that a person should be in a relaxed environment and be in a relaxed and non agitated frame of mind to experience a good trip and be secure in themselves to know anything they experience is a flashback/hallucination.

Creatively, spiritually, morally there is a compelling case here for the review of LSD and the scientific literature surrounding it and a strong case for it to be made legal. A recent House of Commons Review in the UK recently downgraded LSD from Grade A to Grade B . Perhaps if we let our 18/19 year olds throw caution to the wind when in college we may indeed stimulate young minds to come up with the answers to the problems of the world?

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