Psychedelic Science: The surge in psychiatric research using hallucinogens

Research into the therapeutic potential of illegal "psychedelic" drugs to treat an assortment of mainstream mental health conditions is undergoing a modern-day renaissance.It's a new world and there is a greater need than ever for more effective treatment models for individuals for whom our conventional treatment models are often sorely lacking.

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La dépendance aux drogues à l’âge libéral

La répression des toxicomanies au nom de l’ordre et de la santé publique contredit les principes libéraux de liberté individuelle et d’accroissement de l’offre ; elle se voit à son tour contredite par les conséquences psychiques, physiques et criminelles de la clandestinité qu’elle implique. Il convient donc de réapprécier les risques et les responsabilités.

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A New Kind of Acid Test

Ironically, the criminalization of the possession of psychedelic drugs in 1970 and the attendant passion of the authorities’ anti-drug crusade did little to slow the spread of recreational abuse, but effectively shut all research into possible beneficial uses down cold. The cost to the American taxpayer of giving these vets the medical care they’ve earned will be in the range of a trillion dollars over the next 30 or 40 years. If PTSD could be reliably cured with a short-term treatment using an inexpensive drug like MDMA, those costs could be slashed dramatically. And yet, though the Department of Defense is spending lavishly on speculative development all sorts of untested therapies – including planting microchips in veterans’ brains – it has yet to budget a dime for MDMA research, in part, clearly, because the cultural wars of 1970 continue to hold the image of psychedelics hostage.

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Tim Scully

His entire life, Tim Scully has been interested in cutting edge technology and computers. As a teen in 1958, he earned an honorable mention at a San Francisco Bay Area science fair for designing and building a small computer. He later received recognition for building a small linear accelerator pictured in a 1961 edition of the Oakland Tribune. He was trying to make gold atoms from mercury. Tim Scully is best known in the psychedelic underground for his work in the production of LSD from 1966 to 1969, for which he was indicted in 1973 and convicted in 1974. His best known product, dubbed "Orange Sunshine", was considered the standard for quality LSD in 1969.

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