The Psychedelic Renaissance!!

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Some here may know about research into Psychedelic drugs. As an update I have just transcribed this quote from Ph.D. Rick Doblin "president and founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)" which I find to be very exciting in the 'drug' arena!

We are now in a phenomenal situation, where phycadelic research is flourishing. Where the media has been astonishingly positive and I think that we've done a excellent job collectively of portraying the therapudic benifets of these drugs in carefully controlled contexts, so that the fears of the public about these drugs are diminishing and the hope and expectations of the healing potential, the spiritual are strong. So I think we're in a very good position now to move forward over the next decade into mainstreaming pycadelics into our culture.

Rick Doblin, Tue 22 May 2012, "Healing our Deepest wounds" teleseminar

 

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from the archives of general psychiatry, a well respected scientific journal.
"Pilot Study of Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety in Patients With Advanced-Stage Cancer"

http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.116

 

[Termino]

About a month ago I attended a benefit event for Sasha Shulgin. At the event, I met Dr. Nick Cozzi (U of W - Madison) and we had a great conversation regarding his research into MDMA and its analogues. There's a good deal of research going on right now to determine how MDMA may be used in therapeutic settings. He says it's still pretty far away, but there's a glimmer of hope that someday MDMA therapy may be available on a widespread basis.

I also spoke with Dr. Paul Daley, who is working with the Shulgins to preserve all their work. Amongst other things, Paul mentioned that more than 50,000 psychedelic compounds remain untested, so there's a lot of potential research to be done going forward.

Both gentlemen, as well as others I spoke with, are becoming much more optimistic about the future therapeutic use of psychedelics ,but remain steadfast in the conviction that all must be done in a rigorous, scientific manner comparable to research into any other drug.

It was a very interesting evening.

 

[Ismene]

Strange, David Nutt has just brought out a book saying psychedelic/MDMA research has been killed off for the last 40 years and that to do even the smallest study into illegal drugs recently he had to jump through so many hoops it was to all intents and purposes impossible. According to him the vast majority of psychedelic research is still dead as Dillinger and it shows no signs of improving.

 

[Termino]

Here's links to some recently published papers. Although Dr. Cozzi himself is primarily interested in basic research, he is of course in touch with many other researchers who are investigating more practical applications.

The Designer Methcathinone Analogs, Mephedrone and Methylone (April, 2012)

Synthesis and characterization of 5-methoxy-2-methyl-N N-dialkylated tryptamines (October. 2011)

Preparation and analytical characterization of 5-ethoxy-N N-dialkyl- -H 4 - and -D 4 -tryptamines (October, 2010)


Also, keep in mind that this was a fundraising activity to help provide for the healthcare of Sasha Shulgin. I'm sure the presenters gave rather optimistic views in order to get people pumped. Nevertheless, when I had asked Nick about the difficulty in doing research into psychedelics, he related that the most difficult part is just getting the funding. Once approved and funded, the difficulties fall away.

 

[PepperSocks]

No doubt the number of journal articles coming out about psychedelics is increasing, as well the publicly perceived benefits of psychedelics as therapeutic agents. The thing that hasn't changed is the "think of the children!" response to online profiteering psychedelic/stimulant analogues of the classic drugs being used in studies.

Just slow and steady, don't push it, let the data come out and speak for itself. Also passively, through obvious means, have the public differentiate bath salts swallowed on the sidewalk outside a head shop and a weighed MDMA dose in a therapy session. Truth eventually prevails, just don't get all jumpy and start talking to a bunch of people about how great psychedelics are.

 

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Truth eventually prevails, just don't get all jumpy and start talking to a bunch of people about how great psychedelics are.

I can certainly agree about that from personal experience!!! One of the things that has been brought up in this tele-seminar is the great power of these drugs which needs to be treated with respect.
In regards to getting approval from the FDA, as said above, there are some difficulties, but I guess if major drug companies can push mercury through so called double blind placebo testing for vaccines, then anything is possible...