UK - LSD has improved my life, so why should the state decide whether I can take it o

[edgarshade]

Guardian (Opinion)
Wednesday 13 April 2016 19.11 BST

Suzanne Moore

At a time when mindfulness and every other yoga class promises nirvana, why are we so afraid that we could reach transcendence through a pill?

have some helpful things to say if you are thinking about taking LSD. Do it somewhere nice. A safe space, if you like. And do it with people you trust. One of the worst days of my life was taking it and going to the Dolphinarium in Brighton. Not one of my most sensible decisions in retrospect (and there is a fair range to choose from). I don’t really like dolphins anyway and there they were, these weird rubberised fish things being sexually taunted by women in wetsuits. I was convinced they would leap out of the water any second, massacring the audience while making those horrible chattering noises. On the train back to Victoria, I was certain we were actually on the way to Auschwitz but no one wanted to admit it. So that was what you might call a bad trip, maan. And I hope this is putting you off taking this drug sufficiently for you not to bother to tell me it is illegal and potentially brain mashing.

Recreational drug users, however, do know – and I am unapologetically libertarian on this issue. It is our choice, not the state’s, whether we want to chemically reduce or expand our consciousness. At a time when mindfulness and every other yoga class promises nirvana, why we are so afraid that we could just reach transcendence through a pill? This seems neither natural nor properly mystical, and so befuddled are our politicians that they have stalled on their lunatic psychoactive substances bill, as even they could not identify drugs that have yet to be invented.

More...
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...life-state-hallucinogenic-drugs-suzanne-moore

 

[slimvictor]

%)
So cool to see opinions like this in mainstream media.

 

[manboychef]

I too take a libertarian approach to drug use. I find that most people should trip once a year to integrate the thoughts and feelings that they have had over the year. I would really love to see psychologists allowed to administer an adequate dose of LSD and then lead their patient through a trip. I have heard it is very helpful with treating OCD, PTSD, and major depressive disorder. Why not allow the psychologist to have another tool in the box that will expand others minds, and open them up to viewing their problem in a different way? I guess it was okay to try to use it as a weapon as what the CIA was testing it for, but not to actually help people.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

LSD is indeed a great drug. It's a weird one to do on a regular basis, though...it becomes like a kind of bizarre stimulant after a while (I went through a phase of my polydrug abuse career where my DOCs were acid and insufflated methamphetamine. It's amazing that I'm as normal as I am, considering how I've bombed my brain with powerful mind-altering drugs & stimulants)

It has a bad reputation as a drug, though. The layperson basically views it as something you take and go crazy (or as a punchline, only relevant in a storyline that goes along the lines of "I did too much acid and did [insert stupid shit here]") and even hard drug users have really strange & often ignorant views on it, IMO. It's too bad. I think that psychedelic hallucinogens have a lot of promise in the field of psychiatry.