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LSD helps to treat alcoholism
- zcid 15y agoLSD is also known for it's use in treating migraines (about a 1/4 of a recreational dose is effective). I used to keep a supply for this purpose as I was unable to afford the prescription drugs that provide me relief. Unfortunately, LSD carries such a heavy penalty that I no longer do this and usually just shut myself in a dark room for a day or two when I get migraines. I'm lucky that I get them very rarely as opposed to those that get them monthly or even weekly. I remember a short blurb in a Cary Grant [auto?]biography about his use of the drug in therapy and how it changed his life and perspective for the better. It bothers me that a drug like this is so demonized that its possible therapeutic values are almost completely ignored. I know that there are some researchers still doing work in the area, but they are very few due to the huge legal obstacles at the federal levels. I see this as just one more area where prohibition has harmed us. It's so sad that science has become subject to government after so many hundreds of years working to free it from the yoke of religion. Edit: BTW, LSD is listed as a Schedule I drug (the most serious according to US law) and is listed with other such threats as MDMA, heroin, and mankind's worst enemy: Marijuana. It also carries a life sentence in federal prison upon a second trafficking offense.
- hornd 15y agoWhat were the/were there any psychedelic effects of the dosage you took? Did you find you could still "function" in day to day life (work, school, etc)?
- zcid 15y agoThere weren't any psychedelic effects at that dose for me, but there might be for others. You could try a lower dose, but that became a really tiny piece of paper. I did feel a little slower, and it was slightly more difficult to focus during school. It also had an anti-depressant effect. I am very fortunate that I only get migraines a couple of times a year so the fogginess was never a real issue.
- Misha_B 15y agoHave you heard of possible cure for migraines with a ketogenic diet? Reading your comment I recalled I read this story: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=1543 http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=1543 (also related: http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2921 http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=2921).
- samstave 15y agoIt is demonized as it wakes the user up to the bullshit of the system. If you see the universe in all its natural glory, you flatly reject the idea that you should pay fealty to the faulty systems of corrupt humans. LSD is illegal because it creates more Humanity in humans, Humanity which is more closely connected with reality.
- drewblaisdell 15y agoThis sentiment is so romantic that I almost chose not to reply about how inaccurate it is.
- impeachgod 15y agoInaccurate? How so?
- sophacles 15y agoSo instead you chose to effectively say "you're wrong" without any backing... care too elaborate on why we should believe your argument?
- drewblaisdell 15y agoHe claims the government determined that LSD should be Schedule I to oppress the masses and I am the one who is supposed to supply evidence?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- drewblaisdell 15y agoPlease, share one scholarly article that indicates causation between the "eye-opening" cultural effects of LSD and its criminalization. As I see it, when the Controlled Substances Act passed, LSD was lumped in with a whole bunch of other drugs that do not have this effect.
- Daniel_Newby 15y ago> Unfortunately, LSD carries such a heavy penalty that I no longer do this and usually just shut myself in a dark room for a day or two when I get migraines. There is a cheap (prescription) drug called ergotamine that tickles brain receptors similar to those affected by LSD.
- zcid 15y agoThere are also the triptan class of drugs such as Relpax. The problem is you have to go to a doctor to get a prescription. Doctor visits are expensive (relative to my income for most of my life) unless you have access to a school clinic or you have insurance. Migraine medicines should be OTC. The side effects don't warrant limited access.
- dutchbrit 15y agoI've heard that shrooms are also very good for treating migraines.
- rjurney 15y agoI wonder how many of those alcoholics moved on to psychedelics after treatment :) You guys are downvoting me, but at the time addiction and alcoholism were considered separate phenomenon. Psychedelics being new, nobody predicted the 1970s and burnt out hippies, thus the study doesn't seem to take into account alcoholics becoming drug addicts.
- INTPenis 15y agoGood point if you've grown up around addicts you'll know that it's VERY common for them to simply substitute one drug for another. In the lucky cases they substitute meth with alcohol, tobacco and coffee but I could totally picture someone going for cannabis, LSD instead of alcohol. Essentially, it's a psychological thing and it's rarely about the substance itself. LSD is just a replacement for the god experience. However I'd take this opportunity to recommend the documentary Ibogaine - A rite of passage.
- pork 15y agoNot a good point AT ALL. LSD tolerance builds up over absurdly short times. If you take a dose today, and another tomorrow, you'll experience drastically fewer effects. Thus, you never hear of "LSD addicts". There may be other psychological dangers involved for certain individuals, but addiction is not going to be a concern, for purely physiological reasons.
- rjurney 15y agoSeriously? People take too much acid, get real into drug culture and end up living in a bus down by the river. Over time psychedelics can erode the mind.
- loopdoend 15y agoPerhaps they're suffering from HPPD, which can happen to some people. LSD is not 100% safe. Regardless, I think it is more likely they moved on to other drugs as hallucinogens aren't the kind of thing you'd want to take every day or get addicted to.
- orbitingpluto 15y agoI know this is the type of comment that gets downvoted, but when I first saw the article title I thought, "Isn't that nice of the Mormon church."
- jostmey 15y agoBurn the house to kill the termites?
- lightcatcher 15y agoNot at all actually. LSD seems to quite a safe drug, and I'm beginning to question why it is illegal. Alcohol on the other hand seems to be much more dangerous. This graph of active dose to lethal dose ratio and dependence risk serves as a fairly good measure for the risk of various drugs in my opinion: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Drug_danger_and_dependence.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Drug_dan...
- rjurney 15y agoTemporary insanity is viewed as dangerous. LSD is a particularly harsh substance, so on the scale of psychedelics... I would legalize it right before PCP.
- radu_floricica 15y agoEvidence based dear sir... evidence based. We don't really want to start legalizing drugs based on subjective perception, we want to start having studies and publishing numbers, and make decisions based on them.
- rjurney 15y agoTrue. I'm basing this on outcomes in my peer group.
- daed 15y agoI could classify many a drunk person as exhibiting temporary insanity, and clearly drunk people are dangerous. Should I assume you support prohibition of alcohol as well?
- kahawe 15y ago> quite a safe drug With drug-induced chronic psychosis a possibility (as with pretty much ALL more potent drugs), I am not sure "quite safe" is exactly the right word, despite the odds... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD#Potential_adverse_effects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD#Potential_adverse_effects
- jdub 15y agoCan't help thinking, "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza..." ;-)
- sneak 15y agoLSD helps with just about everything.
- jwco 15y agoAccording to the Wikipedia article on LSD, the US DEA claims that the drug among other things "produces...no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics." The TSA chimed in, noting that LSD also produces no safeguard against "things that go BOOM!"
- jwco 15y agoJust to be clear, the first comment was not a joke: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Potential_uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Pote...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- rjurney 15y agoLSD is amazing stuff in that it makes bullshit real, thus expanding the mind's ability to waste time.
- rjurney 15y agoMorphine cured alcohlism in 1817. Cocaine cured morphine addiction in 1884. LSD cured alcoholism in 1960. Detect the pattern.
- rms 15y agoIncreasing amounts of evidence?
- gruseom 15y agoYou keep making this point, but it's a straw man. The issue is whether we ought to study these drugs for therapeutic usages, and what such studies find.
- Shum 15y agoLSD isn't addictive.
- kahawe 15y ago> LSD isn't addictive. You could just as much try to claim that WoW, gambling or food aren't "addictive".
- omarchowdhury 15y agoYou can have WoW, gambling, and food everyday but the way LSD works is, that you can't. It builds tolerance quickly.
- kahawe 15y agoI doubt you understand how different kinds of addictions work...
- omarchowdhury 15y agoI doubt you understand how tryptamine tolerance works in the human body.
- shareme 15y agoSecrets of LSD... Are you ready for this? When humans and most mammals give birth the female body produces a drug that produces psychedelic effects as a counter to pain of child birth on the baby. And guess what? That replay of effects is what we call the illusion of near death experiences that some experience later in life.. Is not the biological machine fascinating? :)
- sev 15y agoJust to clarify, the drug is produced to counter the pain that the baby feels or the pain that the mother feels? Also, I'm very curious about this...is there a source I can read that you know of?
- disgruntledphd2 15y agoThere's some evidence that ketamine, at least is released in near death experiences. Having taken ketamine twice, this is not something that I wish to happen to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in chidbirth also, but I don't know of any evidence pointing towards that. http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=ketamine+and+near+death+experience&hl=en&btnG=Search&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=on http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=ketamine+and+near+deat...
- geoffw8 15y agoTidbit #2, towards the end of a pregnancy, there is a MASSIVE rush of DMT in the mothers body. They don't really know why, but its suggested that its the "life" or consciousness flowing into the baby. But yes, the biological machine is beyond fascinating! Mind boggling!
- omarchowdhury 15y agoCitation needed.
- jdc 15y agoThis is my understanding of the schedule I drugs: they're listed as schedule I because they're not medically usable, and they're not medically usable because they're listed as schedule I.
- rms 15y agoYou got it! Except it's a bit confounded because a few of the schedule 1 drugs really, truly aren't medically usable because they are trumped by substances proven to be less harmful.
- quattrofan 15y agoSo yet another "illegal" drug that could have been improving/saving countless lives for years needlessly prevented from being used by idiot US prohibitionists.
- itmag 15y agoOn a similar note, has anyone here had success getting therapeutic effect from MDMA?
- rdl 15y agoThere's the MAPS MDMA study. I'm also personally familiar with several (> 10) people who used MDMA to treat depression (other than PTSD), both independent of conventional psychotherapy and in a few cases in conjunction with it (by telling the doctor after independently dosing; since he's an MD he has a duty to care for the patient even if he's "on an illegal drug" at the time, but isn't at personal legal risk). I would consider the long-term risks of 1-5 doses of MDMA over a year FAR lower than the side effects of prescribed antidepressants or other psychiatric medications on an ongoing or permanent basis. (I'm not a doctor, though. Just going based on observation of a not statistically significant number in both groups.)
- sammanual 15y agoheck I'd rather take a 'trip' with one little pill then have to down 3L of anything (outside of Maotai - 375ml's enough)