UK - Psychedelic drugs: more a case of 'turn off, tune in, drop out'

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edgarshade

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Guardian

Johnjoe McFadden
guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 February 2012 08.00 GMT

With reader comments

Magic mushrooms work by shutting down parts of the brain, not expanding the mind, according to new research

Six thousand years ago palaeolithic hunters painted images on the walls of the Selva Pascuala caves in Spain that look remarkably similar to locally abundant Psilocybe hispanica, one of the many "magic mushrooms" that contains the hallucinogen psilocybin. The same or similar mushrooms have been used throughout the ages to induce states of religious ecstasy, spiritual enlightenment, mystical meanderings or simply to have a great time. But how do they work? Timothy Leary, who famously told a generation of Americans to "turn on, tune in, drop out", claimed these "mind-expanding chemicals … acts as a chemical key – it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures".

But a few weeks ago an Imperial College-based research group headed by Professor David Nutt (who was sacked as the government's chief drug adviser in 2009 after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol) reported a study that appears to show that, far from expanding the mind, psilocybin shuts it down. The researchers claim that by closing down certain regions of the brain that normally keep our minds on the reality rails, psilocybin may "enable a state of unconstrained cognition". More "turn off, tune in, drop out".
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More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/06/psychedelic-drugs-turn-off-tune-in
 
Semantics, it's the difference between causing something to grow and removing what was restricting it from growth, the results are the same. Very interesting article for a mainstream media outlet though.
 
Documentary with David Nutt in it.. he injected the presenter with psilocybin and scanned his brain.. It showed 2 or 3 regions of the brain were showing less activity than normal.

The presenter loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184PZnvOlx0 - the scene is just under half way through.
 
Guardian
Amanda Feilding
guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 February 2012 12.36 GMT

With reader comments

Magic mushrooms, international law and the failed 'war on drugs'

Recent research suggesting potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin focus attention on the need to reform drug laws.

It's been a busy fortnight. First the publication of two major peer-reviewed research papers about magic mushrooms that attracted worldwide publicity. Then off to Prague for an international drugs policy symposium. And just last week, news of a large grant for our next collaborative study with Imperial College. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
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That is why, together with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, we organised a meeting of government leaders, policy makers and experts at the House of Lords in November at which we launched a Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform.
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The newly published results are exciting enough to have generated funding for a major study into psilocybin and depression, which will begin shortly. Watch this space. Amanda Feilding is director of the Beckley Foundation, a think tank working for health-oriented drug policies based on scientific research
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/06/magic-mushrooms-law-war-drugs
 
My goal is to get into journalism one day. I assure you guys, I will represent our side of the picture if given the opportunity but I will not write bs.
 
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