Table of Contents
Psychedelic drugs, including LSD and magic mushrooms, could help people cope with having a life-threatening illness, an expert in psychological medicines says.
A study involving 93 palliative care doctors in New Zealand and Australia has found strong support for more research into psychedelic medicines being used to treat palliative patients.
Psychedelics are medicines provided they are used in a therapeutic context.
[…] Research was already being done on the use of MDMA for the treatment of people with terminal cancer.
Also for PTSD (it has been used to treat US soldiers) and for adults with chronic social anxiety.
Auckland University associate professor David Menkes told RNZ the trials were showing positive signs.
“That’s provided a real strong hint that MDMA can be spectacularly helpful for some individuals who are facing death from cancer,” he said.
“That’s a big deal because, you know, those people really they’re up against it. And so anything we can do to make their journey more manageable and tolerable is all to the good.”
[…] Seventy-five per cent of participants respondents [sic] disagreed that psychedelics were unsafe and should be prohibited for medical use, while 88 per cent agreed clinical use for palliative patients warranted further investigation.
Having used both LSD and MDMA, I agree that both are safe when used responsibly (I would argue that MDMA is safer than alcohol). I’ve only had bad experiences once for each and in both cases due to my own stupidity – for LSD mixing with alcohol and, with regard to MDMA, not bothering to measure it and taking way too much.
MDMA works by dampening the fear response and releasing oxytocin. Oxytocin increases feelings of safety so in a therapeutic context it’s no mystery why it is so helpful for people facing a terminal illness.
Menkes said the use of a psychedelics [sic] for treatment could eventually be an alternative for people considering assisted dying.
“We think this may actually reduce the numbers of people who go ahead and have medically assisted dying, which for many people would be considered a good outcome,” he said.
“We have this law in New Zealand now that people can make that informed choice, right, at the end of life. But if they’re doing that because they just find their situation intolerable and they can be relieved of that burden in some other way, then it’s quite possible that they will elect to do that.
“And then have, perhaps, a few more months to share with family or to do what they need to feel ready to sign off.”
[…] Menkes said advancing research into psychedelics had been plagued for too long by public perception shaped by the United States federal government-led “war on drugs”.
“Psychedelic research, which had been going on in the ’50s and ’60s, basically stopped for 30 years and has only just been resurrected in the last 10 to 20 years.
“As a result, we don’t really know as much as we need to about what the appropriate use of these medicines might be, who they might benefit, and what the benefit-to-harm ratio might be.”
Psychedelic research has been enjoying a renaissance. The problem is they are still seen as being dangerous and there is lot of disinformation surrounding them. For example, stories involving people on LSD staring at the sun and going blind were literally made-up. Also unscrupulous lawyers claiming that their client was high on acid and so can’t be held responsible for whatever atrocity they committed.
MDMA failed FDA approval because it was impossible to do double-blind tests. In short, you know when you’re stoned. So getting psychedelics approved as official medicines so that they can be prescribed by anyone with appropriate qualifications faces additional hurdles (it also didn’t help that MDMA is believed to cause permanent neurotoxicity, something that is highly questionable).
I can see no reason at all why psychedelics should not be available to those who are dying in the same way that powerful pain-killing opioids are readily available to them. If drugs that ease physical pain are available there is no reason for drugs that relieve psychological pain not also being available.
It is both morally and ethically irresponsible.
![[The Good Oil] Stuff Up of the Day](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/size/w1304/format/webp/2024/09/Stuff-up-image-1.webp)
