The Psychedelic Revolution Is Coming. Psychiatry May Never Be the Same.

[Celerity]

Psilocybin and MDMA are poised to be the hottest new therapeutics since Prozac. Universities want in, and so does Wall Street. Some worry a push to loosen access could bring unintended consequences.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/health/psychedelics-mdma-psilocybin-molly-mental-health.html



It’s been a long, strange trip in the four decades since Rick Doblin, a pioneering psychedelics researcher, dropped his first hit of acid in college and decided to dedicate his life to the healing powers of mind-altering compounds. Even as antidrug campaigns led to the criminalization of Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms, and drove most researchers from the field, Dr. Doblin continued his quixotic crusade with financial help from his parents. Dr. Doblin’s quest to win mainstream acceptance of psychedelics took a significant leap forward on Monday when the journal Nature Medicine published the results of his lab’s study on MDMA, the club drug popularly known as Ecstasy and Molly. The study, the first Phase 3 clinical trial conducted with psychedelic-assisted therapy, found that MDMA paired with counselling brought marked relief to patients with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

The results, coming weeks after a New England Journal of Medicine study that highlighted the benefits of treating depression with psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, have excited scientists, psychotherapists and entrepreneurs in the rapidly expanding field of psychedelic medicine. They say it is only a matter of time before the Food and Drug Administration grants approval for psychoactive compounds to be used therapeutically — for MDMA as soon as 2023, followed by psilocybin a year or two later. After decades of demonization and criminalization, psychedelic drugs are on the cusp of entering mainstream psychiatry, with profound implications for a field that in recent decades has seen few pharmacological advancements for the treatment of mental disorders and addiction. The need for new therapeutics has gained greater urgency amid a national epidemic of opioid abuse and suicides.

“Some days I wake up and can’t believe how far we’ve come,” said Dr. Doblin, 67, who now oversees the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a multimillion dollar research and advocacy empire that employs 130 neuroscientists, pharmacologists and regulatory specialists working to lay the groundwork for the coming psychedelics revolution. The nation’s top universities are racing to set up psychedelic research centers, and investors are pouring millions of dollars into a pack of start-ups. States and cities across the country are beginning to loosen restrictions on the drugs, the first steps in what some hope will lead to the federal decriminalization of psychedelics for therapeutic and even recreational use.

“There’s been a sea change in attitudes about what not long ago was considered fringe science,” said Michael Pollan, whose best-selling book on psychedelics, “How to Change Your Mind,” has helped destigmatize the drugs in the three years since it was published. “Given the mental health crisis in this country, there’s great curiosity and hope about psychedelics and a recognition that we need new therapeutic tools.” The question for many is how far — and how fast — the pendulum should swing, and even researchers who champion psychedelic-assisted therapy say the drive to commercialize the drugs combined with a growing movement to liberalize existing prohibitions could prove risky, especially for those with severe psychiatric disorders, and derail the field’s slow, methodical return to mainstream acceptance.


The psychedelic researcher Rick Doblin dropped his first hit of acid in college and decided to dedicate his life to the healing powers of mind-altering compounds. Now his research center, MAPS, has raised $44 million over the past two years.Credit...Tony Luong for The New York Times

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[Johnny2X2X]

1. Glad to see it

I believe tripping is good for most people. Glad we're finally getting serious about applying these drugs as medicines.

[walkingman]

2. I'm sure I will not be able to participate here in Texas. I ate peyote in the early 70's

and I think it changed my life. I think it truly did open my mind. Sadly a lot of people do not understand the real effects of mind altering drugs. They have a persona usually based the decisions of people that have never or would never try them.

I think our society could use some kind of help in the sanity department these days, or maybe it's just because I am old.

[Duppers]

14. +100

I've joked & probably shocked friends by saying we should put LSD in the water supply! ... If it would be drank only by the over-18r olds. I think it would end the Rethugian Party!

[Mr.Bill]

3. I firmly believe that a hundred or so

LST trips in my younger days was a very good thing for me. I think it formed a great deal of my better personality traits and my level of good mental health to this day fifty years later.

I also think it wouldn't go that way for everyone, in fact I know some people for whom it did not.

It was also the most non addictive drug I've ever used. The only way I can describe that is it opens doors for you to see and know things about yourself but once that is done there is no need to keep opening that door. The amount of door opening it takes will probably vary quite a bit from person to person. A lot more needs to be learned about this.

I was lucky. I never got a hold of some bad stuff and never had a "bad trip". But I have observed that happening to someone and it was not pretty.

[mjvpi]

12. My daughter was describing meeting the father of one of her friends.

"He took enough acid". That described his politics and attitude.

My understanding of the interdependence of things in life started with that funny taste in the back of my mouth.

[Martin Eden]

16. I used it recreationally from the mid 1970's to early 1980's

First experience was with friends going to a triple feature of Marx Brothers movies. The films slowed down for their rapid fire humor. We got every joke as one scene melted into another, and we laughed our asses off.

It was the first time for three of us. The veteran tripper among us did half a 4-way windowpane while we did a quarter each, then he was flying too high to pilot us home so I drove with Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon on the 8-track player.

You definitely see the world in a different way, nearly impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't tried it. I'm not sure to what extent it changed me, but I never had a bad trip and listening to music was phenomenal. I did indeed hear trumpets and violins playing in the distance when Jimi Hendrix did his solo on Are You Experienced.

[BigmanPigman]

4. I just watched a Russell Brand post about this

a few days ago. He is right on target.

[snort]

5. This reminds me I've got a couple grams psilocybin waiting in the fridge.

Tea is served!

[certainot]

6. i wonder if we going to find out psychedelics and pot help fix sex on the wrong brain

maybe release it to the right brain or fix the faulty circuitry

[rickyhall]

7. I always had a good time trippin. I miss those days.

[Harker]

9. As did I, with the minor exception being the night I wished that I could

stop seeing through my eyelids.

[Harker]

8. Wow, man. Like, n/t

[Locrian]

10. good news....

This may be "out there" but these compounds may be our only potential way of surviving.
After the last few years and all the ugliness, I sincerely don't think we're going to make it w/o a little help.

If we can somehow "wake up" a lot of people - maybe this way - **maybe** it might bring a well needed change in perspective...

[Warpy]

11. I hope that's a promise and not a threat

Psychedelics, after they were taken away from the military and before Nixon declared war on them, were showing a great deal of promise in treating a lot of brain chemistry problems, especially refractory clinical depression.

I know local tribes are reporting a lot of success with peyote and substance abuse.

I hope research continues and I hope Nixon's madness is finally ended, the WoD abolished. It didn't work. It just increased crime and put deadlier drugs on the street, few people who want them having trouble finding them.

Maybe some day they'll be able to do something about the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

13. I have been in therapy since I was 15.

I have severe mental illness and ptsd among other things.

I would love to see if psychedelics could help me.

I have no clue what sanity for me,would be like or feel like.
I would like to try.

[mopinko]

17. had a bf for a while i was hoping to trip with.

did acid a couple times, but it didnt rly do anything for me. made me giggly.
old hippy, burner, and just all around hedonist.

i have a mushroom that grows in my yard, laughing gym. have picked and dried them, but dont like to do them alone. i have made an extract w beer that is tasty and made me sleep rly well.
i should do more.

[Duppers]

15. Anyone see Judi Lynn's relevant post?....

Here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/122875994

Scientists identify psychedelic without hallucinogenic side effects

- BBC Science Focus Magazine

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/psychedelic-no-hallucinogenic-drug/