Charity pushes for LSD use in medicine

Charity pushes for LSD use in medicine
February 12, 2010 - Financial Times

A British charity is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate LSD, one of the world’s best-known “recreational” drugs, for medicinal use.

The Beckley Foundation, which numbers Professor Colin Blakemore, former head of the Medical Research Council, among its scientific advisers, is helping fund and lobby for a series of clinical trials to study the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on the human brain.

The foundation has helped co-ordinate a network of researchers and supported the recent launch of one Swiss and two US studies, as well as prepare for a clinical trial in Germany and hold discussions about research within Britain.

The action follows years of suspicion by governments towards LSD since its original role in psychotherapy following the second world war was usurped by the counterculture of the 1960s, triggering bans in the US in 1968 and around the world after the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

Amanda Feilding, who created the Beckley Foundation to promote psychedelic research, said: “We want to open up these incredibly valuable compounds that have been used throughout history. We know LSD is non-toxic and non-addictive. The only way to overcome the taboo is by giving scientific explanations of how to use them beneficially.”

Her efforts to restart research on LSD’s medical applications reflect a long-standing personal interest in the uses of the drug as well as a pledge she made on his death-bed to Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who first synthesised LSD in 1938 and died just two years ago, aged 102.

Sandoz, Mr Hofmann’s long-standing employer, sold LSD for psychotherapy from the late 1940s, but after its patent expired in the 1960s, the drug became more widely associated with figures such as Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary. Swiss therapists were among the last to stop using it for research more than a decade ago.

However, recent efforts have resumed to study its effect on the brain, with specific applications including psychotherapy and treatment of addiction, pain, “cluster headaches” and potentially in degenerative diseases. While regulators have again begun to allow research on LSD, permission has been held up by continued suspicion.

Ms Feilding said her work had included identifying licensed manufacturers of the drug, and negotiating with the US authorities for strict control measures including transport in a locked safe, accompanied by police guards.

The Beckley Foundation’s scientific advisers also include Prof David Nutt, who chaired the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs until he was sacked last year by Alan Johnson, the home secretary, after criticising the official decision not to downgrade its assessment of the dangers of cannabis.

 

Lsd is an amazing medicine, I'm suprised people don't talk about that more.

 

All LSD cures is boredom, don't expect that to go far. /troll

 

Bullshit. It can very well cure depression. Give peoples life meaning.

 

Yeah bro I was just trolling don't worry. I'd love to see LSD be used in psychiatry again. But seeing it happen is gonna need to be seen first.

 

i'm a prime specimen for testing!

 

arty:.. haha , I love you Booga..

 

LSD has been getting more testing for medicinal value than weed it seems. I have been running into articles about this research study or that scientific investigation on the subject for months now.

 

ahahah i say this in all seriousness. i have horrible migraines and i'm clinically depressed. AND i have NEVER done acid. sounds very tempting to me as of lately.

 

I know you was serious..

 

so.....

where do i sign up?

 

my question is why is it said that lsd can heal but it can make someone w/"mental instability" worse? this is especially intriguing to me

 

I just want some Pharm grade Lucy.. ..

 

indeed... i guess it's like anything.. nothing agrees with everyone.

 

oh yea i saw a show about how acid helps people with cluster headaches and one guy refused to try the treatment because he promised his daughter he would never do an illegal drug
funny but sad

 

my2cents

because it seems, you'v gotta walk through the barnyard to get to the forest. your feet are going to get messy if your trudgin through shit.

therapeutic lsd acts as a magnifying lens upon the seemingly oppressive forces that are exerted on our stability. you can choose to react to it in a number of ways but i think there are really only 2 options. to carry the seemingly oppressive force within and build it up in your mind as an impossible obstacle that repeatedly causes you to shrink away...or to realize that whatever harmony is to be found beyond your inner obstacles, its going to require you build up initiative and courage. a good pair of muckboots helps as well.

lsd in this setting isnt a miracle cure, but its a catalyst that is effective at pushing one to their personal edge.

 

seen that same show.. that man is a fool. i would rather be in labor (with ZERO pain meds, again) than have another migraine.. and i get these damn things at least once a month for several days. plus the show had talked about NON-psychedelic acid that had been used and worked just as well for migraines as the psychedelic stuff.

 

ooooooo non psychedelic acid
haha

 

Yeah that was that huge thing on LSD that lsd documentary that was actually good.

 

bump... wtf..