Are Psychedelic Drugs Safer Than Alcohol?

According to new research published in the Journal Psychopharmacology, the use of psychedelic drugs does not increase a person’s risk of developing mental health problems, writes the publication PsyPost.

According to Norwegian clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen and neuroscientist Teri Suzanne Krebs, the findings show that most of the claims about the harms from psychedelic drugs like LSD, “magic” psilocybe mushrooms, and mescaline-containing cacti are unfounded.

“There is little evidence linking psychedelic use to lasting mental health problems,” according to the findings.

“In general, use of psychedelics does not appear to be particularly dangerous when compared to other activities considered to have acceptable safety,” the researchers wrote in the study.

“Concern about psychedelic use seems to have been based on media sensationalism, lack of information and cultural biases, rather than evidence-based harm assessments.”

Secular Talk

More here:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment

Are There Benefits To Psychedelic Drugs?

We are currently experiencing a “renaissance” in psychedelic research, as Michael Pollan writes in a recent issue of The New Yorker. Hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin can be used to treat a range of mental health disorders, from anxiety and addiction to depression, and researchers at the nation’s leading medical schools are studying their full therapeutic potential.

The New Yorker: “Between 1953 and 1973, the federal government spent four million dollars to fund a hundred and sixteen studies of LSD, involving more than seventeen hundred subjects. (These figures don’t include classified research.)

(…)

“Psychedelics were tested on alcoholics, people struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressives, autistic children, schizophrenics, terminal cancer patients, and convicts, as well as on perfectly healthy artists and scientists (to study creativity) and divinity students (to study spirituality). The results reported were frequently positive…”

Secular Talk