Wade 1 Brandon Wade Michael Decker English 101 Sept 19, 2021 Take a Trip With Me: An Exploration of the Future of LSD To trip, or not to trip. that is the question… asked for anyone who has ever been to a rave. Lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD. A psychoactive drug, distributed and used illegally for generations. Negative stigma and bad press led this drug to be one of fear and distaste. But what if this negative bubble that surrounds LSD is simply misguided? Everyone knows about LSD, Acid, and shrooms, but with typically negative reception or illegal use all being enforced by the Government. Were being taught all its dangers, how to stay away from it, how to help others that use, constantly being told how “bad” it is. But it is in the agreement of myself and Robin L Carhart-Harris that perhaps it is time to take this feared drug and shine it in a new light. Recent studies have started to show significant improvements to people with depression, anxiety, OCD, and even alcohol dependence when given a treatment of psilocybin, the active chemical found in certain mushrooms that give the “hallucinogenic” properties when ingested. All this is according to Robin L Carhart-Harris (RLC) and Guy M Goodwin’s (GMG) article titled “The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future.” It’s an article written to explain how treatment involving psilocybin has been going on for years, with many positives results. It delves into the past, and the negative response it initially had. The present, where clinical research is being performed on terminal cancer patients. And the future, where Wade 2 hopefully less intense regulation for research can lead to a suitable replacement for antidepressants and bring to the world a safe, healthy, alternative to psychologically-based medication. All in an attempt to shine a positive light on, what many consider to be, a harmful and dangerous drug. Sadly, poor testing and heavy regulation halt the process of study, many critics argue the necessity of such research when we already have helpful drugs to treat such patients, thus leaving both the pro-and anti-LSD arguments having viable cases to the future of the said drug. The question now lies, whose truth is more true? To truly understand the future, we must first look at the past. According to the RLC, starting in the early ’50s, there were quite a few reports of the subjective effects of LSD, with numerous psychologists and psychiatrists both researching it and using it in clinical practices. Heading further into the mid-’60s, psychedelic research was starting to get increasingly prevented by government means, but around this time the popular countercultural movements started to send LSD’s social impact skyrocketing. Finally, we get to the ’70s, where the war on drugs is in full swing and LSD research was no more, leaving it on a 25-year hiatus from clinical testing. This shows that the understanding of this drug and its uses wasn’t quite known for a long time. Few researchers tested and had theories, but with the government and mass-opinion stated that LSD is bad, everything fell to the wayside. With no notable research be conducted being conducted until 2012, it’s no wonder why public opinion and governmental standing over LSD has never swayed up until recent years. Generations upon generations of people have been taught the dangers and the harm, but never the benefits, thus leaving a culture of hate or distance from the hyperactive drug. Truthfully there is still a lot we don’t know currently, both of the bad and the good, but in safe doses and use for appropriate situations in a professional environment, the negative effects that have been taught to students for generations become almost nonexistent. Wade 3 Leaving the arguments of needing to re-educate people about the true benefits and the true harm of its use. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift... that's why they call it present” - Master Oogway (Dreamworks: Kung Fu Panda). In recent times, while the speculation of the drug remains, research has never been more active. Starting in 1992 in Germany, ‘94 in the United States, and Switzerland in ’97, research started fairly slow for the next coming generations. Now there’s a very notable amount of research being conducted with LSD, including research in human neuroimaging, psychology, and psycho-pharmacology with psychedelics. According to the RLC, this recent uptick in Lsd research has released some very promising “positive preliminary reports on the safety and tolerability of psilocybin”, which include treatment on “end-of-life psychological distress”, alcohol and tobacco addiction, and major depressive disorder. But, RLC does state in his article “An important caveat here, is that many of these trials report on small sample sizes and would best be described as ‘safety and tolerability studies by conventional standard, and while all of them do report outcomes consistent with potential efficacy, most have not been appropriately designed to demonstrate it conclusively.” RLC further claims, that these experiments that are not “appropriately designed to demonstrate it conclusively” are not at the researcher's fault but the fault of strict governmental control of the research. These experiments and their faults will be further explained in the latter paragraph. Where in the past, little to no research or data came conclusively out of research, in the present, tests are being carefully conducted and finally we are seeing a nearly conclusive positive change in the cognitive disabilities that affect people. Finally, I'd like to focus on the current issues with clinical studies RLC writes about, along with plans and steps to be taken in the future. Firstly, there's a difference between anti- Wade 4 depressants and LSD when used in treatment. Where anti-depressants tend to “blunt” certain cognitive functions that might lead to depression, LCD (or psilocybin) heightened and emphasizes emotional release along with heightened awareness of their surroundings. This key difference is the direct cause of to study and research on terminally cancerous patients, who have heightened depression due to their condition. But there's a caveat, out of 128 patients only 20% said they would be interested in talking to someone, only 8% of those people talked to a psychologist, and only around 2% agreed to receive treatment with LSD. This is a fraction of the number of people they would need to get conclusive evidence on the drug uses, bringing the argument of any evidence being introduced to have faulty experiment data, according to RLC: “thus, the case for a particular unmet need in cancer patients is quite difficult to sustain”. Furthermore, the measure of such cases being treated is very difficult, according to RLC “symptoms alone are a problematic way of assessing outcome. In other words, they are not highly proximal to the disease process for example research domain criteria dimensions have been suggested to be.” That being said, the data that is coming out should not be ignored. Nearly every case being studied shows positive effects to the treatments with the only issues surrounding the scope of the experimenting. RLC goes on to state “The unspoken assumption, which I think we both share, is that the use of psilocybin at this stage requires a medical justification”, so the question lies: what does the future hold for psilocybin (or LSD)? RLC believes that if government regulation was to ease to allow more clinical research, we might have a wonder-drug on our hands. But legalizing such a drug for medical use will require much time. There would have to be a nearly global re-education of its effects along with a major sway in public opinion, and at its current stage, while increasing slowly for the last few years, that may Wade 5 be possible in the coming years. The world is not impossible to change, nor are the thoughts of the public, it will just take a little while. Thus we circle back to the age-old question; to trip, or not to trip? With research being done every day and positive data being released, it’s almost amazing nothing much has come out of it as of yet. The number of support is growing by the day, which is both amazing and terrifying for a drug that still hasn’t received enough research. This boost of support may lead to the government loosening its harsh grip around the research, or it may stagnate it with its illegal users. The future for LSD, psilocybin, or any psychoactive drug still lies dormant, but with support and more time, we may have an eye-opening chance to help the world.
