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MAPS Personal Essay on Potential Medical Uses of Psilocybin
- Thread starter AlphaMethylPhenyl
- Start date
thadocta13
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This is a damn good read. A+
kittyinthedark
Bluelight Crew
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Was this part of an academic assignment? Most of the essays I wrote for school were on much more mundane/boring topics...
EarthBounded
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YES YES YES!!! THIS IS WHAT WE NEED!!!
Why did you get suspended from BL OP?
Why did you get suspended from BL OP?
RhythmSpring
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2008
- Messages
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Where'd the essay go? I wanna read it!
I also wrote an essay for college entitled "The Psychedelic Closet" (like the gay closet). It briefly outlines the value and medical potential for psychedelics and the real social stigma around psychedelic use. You guys wanna see it?
I also wrote an essay for college entitled "The Psychedelic Closet" (like the gay closet). It briefly outlines the value and medical potential for psychedelics and the real social stigma around psychedelic use. You guys wanna see it?
Shimmerchasm
Greenlighter
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RhythmSpring
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- Jun 19, 2008
- Messages
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My Essay
I still wish I could read the OP's essay, but, anyway, here's mine.
The Psychedelic Closet:
Substance Use as Oppressive Identity
In this essay I will discuss the “psychedelic closet," the epistemological uncertainty and fear surrounding psychedelics and their users. Is substance use an inherent facet of personality, or is it merely a description of actions that a person chooses to take? Similarities and differences between the psychedelic closet and the gay closet are highlighted.
The possession of the majority of psychedelics has been prohibited by law. Some believe that psychedelics are a public safety concern or that it is immoral to use them. Some are simply uneducated about what it means to take a psychedelic; instead they buy into a pernicious slew of misinformation. Those on the other side of the psychedelic closet door often believe they are wrongfully persecuted for their personal choices. For these reasons and many more, the psychedelic closet has striking similarities to the legal and cultural (and sometimes legal) prohibition of homosexuality.
Despite their illegality, many psychedelic drugs hold promise for psychiatric illnesses. I will briefly discuss three illicit drugs with proven medical potential. It should be noted there exist hundreds of psychedelics MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, has been and is being studied as a powerfully effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, causing “sustained remission.”1,2 MDMA induces intense feelings of self-acceptance among other euphoric feelings and perceptions—its medical power as well as its recreational draw. Therefore, MDMA carries the potential to be psychologically addictive. Administered in controlled environment, however, MDMA can be a positive force in psychiatric medicine. Before it was outlawed in 1985, therapists were beginning to use it in therapy, especially couple’s therapy.
Ibogaine, a molecule found in the Iboga plant in West Africa, is a psychedelic being studied as an “addiction interrupter,” showing promise for people addicted to stimulants, opioids and alcohol. One study showed the “resolution of the signs of opioid withdrawal without further drug seeking behavior” in 25 out of 33 opioid addicts treated with ibogaine.”3 The Iboga plant is also considered a sacrament in the Bwiti religion of Gabon, where it is eaten for healing and coming-of-age rituals. It induces atypical hallucinations (called visions by many) that can last for up to three days. Ibogaine is physically taxing, so it must be used in a clinical setting. It has little recreational value.
Both psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and LSD have been proven to reduce fear conditioning, and end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill patients. Studies also show that they treat cluster headaches (5). “[P]atients said they had a "mystical" experience that they felt was significantly personal and spiritual, but few noted any side effects. Participants reported improvements in attitude, mood and behavior that were confirmed by their friends and family.” Psilocybe mushrooms also have a history of use in Mexican shamanic contexts. It induces about 6 hours of altered perception.
It is important to note that the medical benefits of psychedelics are lasting and arise from just a small handful of sessions—as opposed to a continuous regimen required to keep symptoms at bay. Because mental illness falls upon a spectrum of severity, many people who lack official diagnoses but are interested in self-improvement find value in the psychedelic experience outside medical contexts. A psychedelic experience that loosens emotional and mental blocks often leads to the feelings of wellbeing or “high” typically associated with the psychedelic experience.
Most naturally occurring psychedelics used today have a history of use in shamanism all over the world. Besides the examples already mentioned, the Peyote cactus is eaten in the Native American Church for spiritual and physical cleansing; Salvia divinorum, a plant in the mint family with short-lasting atypical cognitive effects, is used by the Mazatec people of Mexico; Ayahuasca, combination of two jungle plants that often induces a “purge,” or vomiting, is used by various Amazonian tribes for healing and cleansing; Hashish is ubiquitous in several religious cultures in India and the Middle East; Even Europe has a history of using the Amanita muscaria mushroom and certain psychedelic trumpet vines for divination. The use of these plants is regarded as sacred in these cultures. Those who use these plants the most, the shamans, are sometimes the most revered members of the community. It is only in recent history that society has condemned users of these plants.
It follows that psychedelics have threatened society not because psychedelics themselves are dangerous, but because they have fallen out of their original contexts as tools to be used consciously and carefully for wellbeing. It is their use as merely recreational substances that leads to the horror stories and negative perceptions many of us hold today. For example, when MDMA is administered in a quiet therapeutic setting, there are few if any side effects. But if it is taken in a dance party context, users may become dehydrated or overheated. Mushrooms and LSD, if taken in excess, can lead to overly intense experiences and erratic behavior. A bad experience on a psychedelic can even lead to psychological problems such as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, or HPPD.
~~~
Many people feel passionately about psychedelics and the insight and transformations they can bring about, but expressing these sentiments is risky even to their own family. One user on an internet forum writes, "I just want the people I love the most to know who I am. I'm so tired of the negative stigma attached to the things that I believe in so strongly. I'm so sick of being an in-the-closet user of psychedelics to certain people in my life." Replace “user of psychedelics” with “homosexual” and we are in familiar territory. As Sedgwick explains, coming out of the closet isn't so black-and-white; one may come out to some and not others. This leads to living a kind of double life, an ordeal homosexuals often have to face.
For someone to reveal that they use or have used psychedelic drugs is fraught with threats of social punishment of many kinds. Coming out of the closet is risky—one’s behavior will likely be looked down upon with fear and ignorance. Like some outdated beliefs about homosexuality, drug use is often associated with clinical insanity. Ironically, the evidence earlier in this essay proves the opposite: that psychedelics may in fact resolve some psychological problems.
Like with homosexuality few decades ago, knowledge of someone's use of drugs of any kind is grounds to socially reject them or deny them a job. Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), says there is a real "reputational risk" to talk openly about one’s use of MDMA.
Brand-able identities have arisen from the taboo surrounding psychedelic use: the counterculturist, the dirty hippie, and the "druggie." These are just three of many complex and oppressive labels placed upon one who likes to take psychedelics. They are characterized by images of filth, laziness, and carelessness. The media portrays users of psychedelics as dangerous and mentally unstable as well. In court, questions about drug use are sometimes used to bring suspicion to a testifier's credibility.6
In one court case between Rick Doblin and the DEA, Doblin was asked if he had ever used marijuana. Doblin refused to answer at first, but the judge said something surprising: In a criminal case, the judge is not allowed to draw any negative inferences the act of pleading the fifth; however, in civil cases, the judge may interpret the refusal however she wants.
Double binds regarding substance use also exist in the doctor’s office. Often appearing in patient questionnaire is something like, "Do you use illicit drugs"? Reasons of medical safety warrant confession, but fear of being shunned or even of facing legal consequences are incentives to withhold the information, putting the patient at greater medical risk.
Often psychedelic users are confused with those addicted to pleasure-giving drugs such as alcohol or cocaine. This lumping of vastly different substances into the category of "drugs"—and the resultant lumping together of the people who use them—bears resemblance to some ignorant and absurd generalizations about non-heterosexual, non-monogamous sexuality. Furthermore, some use mind-altering substances only once or twice in their life while others use them hundreds of times. Regardless, one use can forever taint someone’s reputation, becoming part of his or her identity in today’s society. This variation in amount of drug use places people on a spectrum stretching from one who is completely abstinent to one whose drug use is embedded in their lifestyle, much like the spectrum that is sexuality.
Of course, there exist epistemological differences between the gay closet and the psychedelic closet. For instance, psychedelic use is a choice, whereas sexuality is not. Despite this difference, both minorities experience a dangerous amount of shame and guilt about their lifestyles. Like the gay rights movement, there exists a cultural battle over identifying words. On the making the word “psychedelic” no longer taboo, Rick Doblin says, “I think we can reclaim the cultural connotations the same way the gay rights movement has done about ‘gay.’”
Psychedelics carry with them heavy medical implications, both positive and negative, whereas sexuality is largely a non-medical issue.
When one’s lifestyle is illegal, it is harder to come out of the closet. Thus, psychedelic users experience added fear when it comes to coming out. The act of coming out not only poses legal risks, it can bring upon the user new, burdensome identities. In many ways, it is impossible to tell what will happen when one "comes out," because there is "a weighty and occupied and consequential epistemological space"--a darkness, if you will, surrounding the "freedom" that coming out supposedly endows (Sedgwick 77).
Sedgwick quotes D. A. Miller about public knowledge of one’s sexuality: “And the phenomenon of the ‘open secret’ does not, as one might think, bring about the collapse of those binarisms and their ideological effects…” (67) The same is true for psychedelic users. Friends and family of the user may suspect that he or she uses psychedelics, thus making the secret of their use known, silently. This knowledge without tacit validation, however, does not qualify as any kind of liberation, and is a kind of oppression in itself.
Ever since drug prohibition in the early 1970s, those using and administering psychedelics for therapeutic benefits were forced into a kind of hiding within society. Nevertheless, there remain a host of intellectuals and professionals that work tirelessly to educate the public about psychedelics. Rick Doblin, Ph.D. appears to be one of the most prominent, legally spearheading many of the studies being done on the benefits of psychedelics. In addition, there are some anthropologists who study psychedelic ethnobotany: Wade Davis, Richard Evans Schultes to name a few. Some of the most prominent scientists include: Julie Holland, M.D., psychiatrist; Alexander Shulgin, pharmacologist; Stanislav Grof, Ph.D., Freudian psychoanalyst and consciousness researcher; David E. Nichols, pharmacologist and medicinal chemist; and David Nutt, neuropsychopharmacologist.
Today, the advocating for gender rights seems easy in comparison to advocating for the rights of those who use drugs. Many great strides have been taken in gender rights; and now it seems that we are often preaching to the choir about tolerance and acceptance into society. Not so with substance use; much of society is still wary of drugs and their users. This is likely due to a campaign of fear and misinformation, both intentional and unintentional, that has swept modern society. Psychedelic users are a widely misunderstood segment of the population that is currently struggling to legitimize itself in the public eye. In a sense, the psychedelic rights movement is today where the gay rights movement was a century ago.
Works Cited:
1:
A randomized, controlled pilot study of MDMA (±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of resistant, chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Peter Oehen, Rafael Traber, Verena Widmer, Ulrich Schnyder
October 31, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0269881112464827 J Psychopharmacol January 2013 vol. 27 no. 1 40-52
2:
(http://youtu.be/KBT4m4aFlJc 0:35:51).
3:
Alper, K.R.; Lotsof, H.S.; Frenken, G.M.; Luciano, D.J. and Bastiaans, J. (1999). "Treatment of Acute Opioid Withdrawal with Ibogaine". The American Journal on Addictions 8 (3): 234–42. doi:10.1080/105504999305848. PMID 10506904
4: 'Magic Mushrooms' Could Treat Depression & Addiction
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily | June 15, 2011 10:30am ET
“Under the second-highest dose given in the study, patients said they had a "mystical" experience that they felt was significantly personal and spiritual, but few noted any side effects. Participants reported improvements in attitude, mood and behavior that were confirmed by their friends and family.”
5:
Neurology. 2006 Jun 27;66(12):1920-2.
Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD.
Sewell RA, Halpern JH, Pope HG Jr.
6:
(http://youtu.be/KBT4m4aFlJc 1:29:23 - Pleading the fifth apparently does not protect in civil cases).
I still wish I could read the OP's essay, but, anyway, here's mine.
The Psychedelic Closet:
Substance Use as Oppressive Identity
In this essay I will discuss the “psychedelic closet," the epistemological uncertainty and fear surrounding psychedelics and their users. Is substance use an inherent facet of personality, or is it merely a description of actions that a person chooses to take? Similarities and differences between the psychedelic closet and the gay closet are highlighted.
The possession of the majority of psychedelics has been prohibited by law. Some believe that psychedelics are a public safety concern or that it is immoral to use them. Some are simply uneducated about what it means to take a psychedelic; instead they buy into a pernicious slew of misinformation. Those on the other side of the psychedelic closet door often believe they are wrongfully persecuted for their personal choices. For these reasons and many more, the psychedelic closet has striking similarities to the legal and cultural (and sometimes legal) prohibition of homosexuality.
Despite their illegality, many psychedelic drugs hold promise for psychiatric illnesses. I will briefly discuss three illicit drugs with proven medical potential. It should be noted there exist hundreds of psychedelics MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, has been and is being studied as a powerfully effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, causing “sustained remission.”1,2 MDMA induces intense feelings of self-acceptance among other euphoric feelings and perceptions—its medical power as well as its recreational draw. Therefore, MDMA carries the potential to be psychologically addictive. Administered in controlled environment, however, MDMA can be a positive force in psychiatric medicine. Before it was outlawed in 1985, therapists were beginning to use it in therapy, especially couple’s therapy.
Ibogaine, a molecule found in the Iboga plant in West Africa, is a psychedelic being studied as an “addiction interrupter,” showing promise for people addicted to stimulants, opioids and alcohol. One study showed the “resolution of the signs of opioid withdrawal without further drug seeking behavior” in 25 out of 33 opioid addicts treated with ibogaine.”3 The Iboga plant is also considered a sacrament in the Bwiti religion of Gabon, where it is eaten for healing and coming-of-age rituals. It induces atypical hallucinations (called visions by many) that can last for up to three days. Ibogaine is physically taxing, so it must be used in a clinical setting. It has little recreational value.
Both psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and LSD have been proven to reduce fear conditioning, and end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill patients. Studies also show that they treat cluster headaches (5). “[P]atients said they had a "mystical" experience that they felt was significantly personal and spiritual, but few noted any side effects. Participants reported improvements in attitude, mood and behavior that were confirmed by their friends and family.” Psilocybe mushrooms also have a history of use in Mexican shamanic contexts. It induces about 6 hours of altered perception.
It is important to note that the medical benefits of psychedelics are lasting and arise from just a small handful of sessions—as opposed to a continuous regimen required to keep symptoms at bay. Because mental illness falls upon a spectrum of severity, many people who lack official diagnoses but are interested in self-improvement find value in the psychedelic experience outside medical contexts. A psychedelic experience that loosens emotional and mental blocks often leads to the feelings of wellbeing or “high” typically associated with the psychedelic experience.
Most naturally occurring psychedelics used today have a history of use in shamanism all over the world. Besides the examples already mentioned, the Peyote cactus is eaten in the Native American Church for spiritual and physical cleansing; Salvia divinorum, a plant in the mint family with short-lasting atypical cognitive effects, is used by the Mazatec people of Mexico; Ayahuasca, combination of two jungle plants that often induces a “purge,” or vomiting, is used by various Amazonian tribes for healing and cleansing; Hashish is ubiquitous in several religious cultures in India and the Middle East; Even Europe has a history of using the Amanita muscaria mushroom and certain psychedelic trumpet vines for divination. The use of these plants is regarded as sacred in these cultures. Those who use these plants the most, the shamans, are sometimes the most revered members of the community. It is only in recent history that society has condemned users of these plants.
It follows that psychedelics have threatened society not because psychedelics themselves are dangerous, but because they have fallen out of their original contexts as tools to be used consciously and carefully for wellbeing. It is their use as merely recreational substances that leads to the horror stories and negative perceptions many of us hold today. For example, when MDMA is administered in a quiet therapeutic setting, there are few if any side effects. But if it is taken in a dance party context, users may become dehydrated or overheated. Mushrooms and LSD, if taken in excess, can lead to overly intense experiences and erratic behavior. A bad experience on a psychedelic can even lead to psychological problems such as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, or HPPD.
~~~
Many people feel passionately about psychedelics and the insight and transformations they can bring about, but expressing these sentiments is risky even to their own family. One user on an internet forum writes, "I just want the people I love the most to know who I am. I'm so tired of the negative stigma attached to the things that I believe in so strongly. I'm so sick of being an in-the-closet user of psychedelics to certain people in my life." Replace “user of psychedelics” with “homosexual” and we are in familiar territory. As Sedgwick explains, coming out of the closet isn't so black-and-white; one may come out to some and not others. This leads to living a kind of double life, an ordeal homosexuals often have to face.
For someone to reveal that they use or have used psychedelic drugs is fraught with threats of social punishment of many kinds. Coming out of the closet is risky—one’s behavior will likely be looked down upon with fear and ignorance. Like some outdated beliefs about homosexuality, drug use is often associated with clinical insanity. Ironically, the evidence earlier in this essay proves the opposite: that psychedelics may in fact resolve some psychological problems.
Like with homosexuality few decades ago, knowledge of someone's use of drugs of any kind is grounds to socially reject them or deny them a job. Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), says there is a real "reputational risk" to talk openly about one’s use of MDMA.
Brand-able identities have arisen from the taboo surrounding psychedelic use: the counterculturist, the dirty hippie, and the "druggie." These are just three of many complex and oppressive labels placed upon one who likes to take psychedelics. They are characterized by images of filth, laziness, and carelessness. The media portrays users of psychedelics as dangerous and mentally unstable as well. In court, questions about drug use are sometimes used to bring suspicion to a testifier's credibility.6
In one court case between Rick Doblin and the DEA, Doblin was asked if he had ever used marijuana. Doblin refused to answer at first, but the judge said something surprising: In a criminal case, the judge is not allowed to draw any negative inferences the act of pleading the fifth; however, in civil cases, the judge may interpret the refusal however she wants.
Double binds regarding substance use also exist in the doctor’s office. Often appearing in patient questionnaire is something like, "Do you use illicit drugs"? Reasons of medical safety warrant confession, but fear of being shunned or even of facing legal consequences are incentives to withhold the information, putting the patient at greater medical risk.
Often psychedelic users are confused with those addicted to pleasure-giving drugs such as alcohol or cocaine. This lumping of vastly different substances into the category of "drugs"—and the resultant lumping together of the people who use them—bears resemblance to some ignorant and absurd generalizations about non-heterosexual, non-monogamous sexuality. Furthermore, some use mind-altering substances only once or twice in their life while others use them hundreds of times. Regardless, one use can forever taint someone’s reputation, becoming part of his or her identity in today’s society. This variation in amount of drug use places people on a spectrum stretching from one who is completely abstinent to one whose drug use is embedded in their lifestyle, much like the spectrum that is sexuality.
Of course, there exist epistemological differences between the gay closet and the psychedelic closet. For instance, psychedelic use is a choice, whereas sexuality is not. Despite this difference, both minorities experience a dangerous amount of shame and guilt about their lifestyles. Like the gay rights movement, there exists a cultural battle over identifying words. On the making the word “psychedelic” no longer taboo, Rick Doblin says, “I think we can reclaim the cultural connotations the same way the gay rights movement has done about ‘gay.’”
Psychedelics carry with them heavy medical implications, both positive and negative, whereas sexuality is largely a non-medical issue.
When one’s lifestyle is illegal, it is harder to come out of the closet. Thus, psychedelic users experience added fear when it comes to coming out. The act of coming out not only poses legal risks, it can bring upon the user new, burdensome identities. In many ways, it is impossible to tell what will happen when one "comes out," because there is "a weighty and occupied and consequential epistemological space"--a darkness, if you will, surrounding the "freedom" that coming out supposedly endows (Sedgwick 77).
Sedgwick quotes D. A. Miller about public knowledge of one’s sexuality: “And the phenomenon of the ‘open secret’ does not, as one might think, bring about the collapse of those binarisms and their ideological effects…” (67) The same is true for psychedelic users. Friends and family of the user may suspect that he or she uses psychedelics, thus making the secret of their use known, silently. This knowledge without tacit validation, however, does not qualify as any kind of liberation, and is a kind of oppression in itself.
Ever since drug prohibition in the early 1970s, those using and administering psychedelics for therapeutic benefits were forced into a kind of hiding within society. Nevertheless, there remain a host of intellectuals and professionals that work tirelessly to educate the public about psychedelics. Rick Doblin, Ph.D. appears to be one of the most prominent, legally spearheading many of the studies being done on the benefits of psychedelics. In addition, there are some anthropologists who study psychedelic ethnobotany: Wade Davis, Richard Evans Schultes to name a few. Some of the most prominent scientists include: Julie Holland, M.D., psychiatrist; Alexander Shulgin, pharmacologist; Stanislav Grof, Ph.D., Freudian psychoanalyst and consciousness researcher; David E. Nichols, pharmacologist and medicinal chemist; and David Nutt, neuropsychopharmacologist.
Today, the advocating for gender rights seems easy in comparison to advocating for the rights of those who use drugs. Many great strides have been taken in gender rights; and now it seems that we are often preaching to the choir about tolerance and acceptance into society. Not so with substance use; much of society is still wary of drugs and their users. This is likely due to a campaign of fear and misinformation, both intentional and unintentional, that has swept modern society. Psychedelic users are a widely misunderstood segment of the population that is currently struggling to legitimize itself in the public eye. In a sense, the psychedelic rights movement is today where the gay rights movement was a century ago.
Works Cited:
1:
A randomized, controlled pilot study of MDMA (±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of resistant, chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Peter Oehen, Rafael Traber, Verena Widmer, Ulrich Schnyder
October 31, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0269881112464827 J Psychopharmacol January 2013 vol. 27 no. 1 40-52
2:
(http://youtu.be/KBT4m4aFlJc 0:35:51).
3:
Alper, K.R.; Lotsof, H.S.; Frenken, G.M.; Luciano, D.J. and Bastiaans, J. (1999). "Treatment of Acute Opioid Withdrawal with Ibogaine". The American Journal on Addictions 8 (3): 234–42. doi:10.1080/105504999305848. PMID 10506904
4: 'Magic Mushrooms' Could Treat Depression & Addiction
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily | June 15, 2011 10:30am ET
“Under the second-highest dose given in the study, patients said they had a "mystical" experience that they felt was significantly personal and spiritual, but few noted any side effects. Participants reported improvements in attitude, mood and behavior that were confirmed by their friends and family.”
5:
Neurology. 2006 Jun 27;66(12):1920-2.
Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD.
Sewell RA, Halpern JH, Pope HG Jr.
6:
(http://youtu.be/KBT4m4aFlJc 1:29:23 - Pleading the fifth apparently does not protect in civil cases).