Daily Archives: February 28, 2017

Jag Davies is the director of communications strategy for the Drug Policy Alliance. This piece first appeared on the Drug Policy Alliance Blog.

The criminalization of people who use psychedelics is rooted in myths that are the vestiges of colonialism and the drug war and, one by one, those myths are crumbling down.

Weve learned in recent years that people who use psychedelics are significantly *less* likely to end up developing mental health problems, perpetrating domestic violence, or suffering from psychological distress and suicidal thinking.

Meanwhile, recent research has shown that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be an effective treatment for people struggling with difficult-to-treat conditions such as substance use disorders. Not much has been known, though, about the connection between psychedelic use and substance misuse in the general population.

Now, a new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology has found that experiences with psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms are associated with decreased risk of opioid abuse and dependence among respondents with a history of illegal opioid use. Psychedelic use is associated with 27% reduced risk of past-year opioid dependence and 40% reduced risk of past-year opioid abuse. Other than marijuana use, which was associated with 55% reduced risk of past-year opioid abuse, no other illegal drug was associated with reduced risk of past-year opioid dependence or abuse.

The study is based on six years of data from the federal governments National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which surveys 70,000 people each year. While the findings are far from causal, the authors conclude that the associations between psychedelic use and opioid misuse are pervasive and significant and suggest that psychedelics are associated with positive psychological characteristics and are consistent with prior reports suggesting efficacy in treatment of substance use disorders.

Although more research is needed to determine exactly why theres such a strong correlation between psychedelic use and decreased risk of opioid misuse, this study does appear to validate the experiences of many people who have found substances like ibogaine, marijuana or kratom to be life-changing tools that have helped them lead happier, more fulfilling lives. For many, these substances have helped them cut back or quit their use of opioids or other substances with which theyve had a problematic relationship. Safe access to these substances along with 911 Good Samaritan laws, naloxone access programs, supervised injection facilities, various forms of maintenance therapy, and, of course, ending the criminalization of drug use should be part of the discussion when it comes to dealing with addiction and skyrocketing rates of overdose deaths.

And lets not forget our commander-in-chief is ramping up the drug war and thinks he can deal with opioid addiction by building a giant wall and deporting millions of people, both documented and undocumented. Lets remember, too, that thousands of people are getting handcuffed, arrested, branded as criminals, and serving time behind bars every year simply for using or possessing a psychedelic substance in the U.S. and these people are more likely to be young, non-white, and socioeconomically marginalized than most people who use psychedelics.

While psychedelic-assisted therapy could be approved by the FDA in the next decade, that would do nothing to change the criminal penalties faced by millions of people who use psychedelics outside of government-sanctioned, medically-supervised settings. Thats why its incumbent upon people who care about psychedelics to advocate for reducing the criminalization of people who use them outside of medical contexts, while also advocating for psychedelic-assisted therapy research.

Given the widespread scientific consensus that drug use and addiction are best treated as health issues, theres no good reason for people who use psychedelics to be treated as criminals especially considering how much we already know about prohibitions discriminatory impact on people of color and other marginalized groups.

This study also forces us to reflect on why abstinence-only policies can be so harmful and counterproductive. Contrary to conventional wisdom, federal government data has consistently shown that the vast majority of people who use opioids, including heroin, dont end up developing an addiction. So our focus should be not just on preventing people from using opioids after all, they can be essential medical tools but also ensuring, above all else, that people who use them dont go on to struggle with addiction.

A truly health-centered approach to drug addiction assesses improvement by many measures, not simply by someones drug use level, but also by their overall health, their social relationships, and their general well-being. Determining success by boiling it down to the single measure of abstinence to an arbitrary group of certain drugs isnt realistic or effective.

Addiction is a complex phenomenon, but I think its safe to say that it can only be genuinely resolved when people find meaning in their lives. This study is yet another indication that the meaning people seem to find from psychedelics has considerable implications for our prevailing healthcare and addiction treatment paradigms.

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Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New ...

Eleusis, the University's firststudent organization committed to studying psychedelics interdisciplinarily, held its first open house yesterday.

The organization seeks to remove the taboo from psychedelics, according to Eleusis founder and Executive Director Sonia Joseph 19.

Joseph explained that over the past five years, there has been a low-key renaissance, in which new studies have documented the use of psychedelics, such as psilocybin mushrooms and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), to treat mental illnesses. The research has implications for mental health treatment, therapy, and the academic study of human consciousness, according to Joseph.

Joseph said the increased interest in psychedelics is part of a longer conversation, which lacks an undergraduate voice. Eleusis seeks to bridge the gap between undergraduates and academics regarding psychedelics.

We want to bring in people from all disciplines [to discuss psychedelics], said Joseph, people from anthropology, religion, public policy, neuroscience, biochemistry.

The organization will invite speakers from the New Jersey, New York City, and Baltimore areas, host group discussions, and screen films about psychedelics.

Eleusis will approach the conversation from an academic standpoint, says its founder. Indeed,Joseph wants to dispel a dangerous misconception about the organization.

We are not involved in giving out drugs, she said, we are not a drug ring.

Joseph is one of the organization'ssix current board members.

Edgar Preciado 18, studying Spanish and Portuguese, serves as Director of PuPolicy Change. He is writing his junior paper on drug use among Mexican Americans in the 80s and 90s in Los Angeles, and his interest in psychedelics comes from its potential ability to treat addiction. He noted that people in his community of Compton have had histories of substance use.

It has motivated me, personally, to study . . . the context in which drug use is more likely to happen, Preciado said.

Students that attended the open house had a wide range of interests.

Javon Ryan 17, in the Classics Department, has been following the research on psychedelics.

As a person who has been dealing with some mental health issues of my own, Ive been interested in the potential of these compounds to help with issues such as anxiety and depression, Ryan said. Im interested in following and seeing what happens in the future with the research [from] anthropological, religious, neuroscientific, and psychological perspectives.

Many of the open house attendees are psychedelic users themselves and are interested in having a forum to discuss their experiences and best practices.

Ive had a long and complicated history with psychedelic use, said Joseph. I want to take a more neutral view.

She noted the wide range of experiences that people have with psychedelics, noting that Eleusis will take a safe, informed, rational perspective.

Of the twelve total attendees, a majority said that past psychedelic use had spurred their interest in Eleusis. According to Joseph, a number of professors at the University have expressed support.

Joseph expressed concern about psychedelics historical image, noting that Timothy Leary and others in the 60s marketed psychedelics as an anti-establishment drug, a sort of middle finger to the government.

Eventually, I think the stigma will fade, she added.

The open house took place in 1915 room at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. Eleusis is currently recruiting board members.

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First U. student group on studying psychedelics holds open house - The Daily Princetonian

By Britta Lokting February 27, 2017

Since Neal Goldsmith saw his soul during a particularly wild acid trip in 91, he's been at the forefront of the movement to normalize the psychedelic experience.

Photos by Vincent Tullo

Theformercab driverwithinNeal Goldsmithisunleashedas he swerveshis Audipastsignpostsin Dumbo, Brooklyn,andwhipsthroughan intersectionon his way into the cityaround seven p.m.He merges onto the Manhattan Bridge and lightsuponeof the eight joints he rolled anhour prior in his home office. He cracks the window and inhales. TheFreedom Towercomes into viewand the city lightsfloat closer in momentary silence.

Im not a masochist, Goldsmithsaysasthe bridge spits the car out ontoChrystieStreet. I dont want to die.

Hesnottalking abouthis driving, but rather hisuse of psychedelics, which,like marijuana, he candidly broadcasts.Aftera revelatory trip 25years ago at age forty, he left his consulting career, opened a psychotherapy practice,and hasbecome a leadingproponentofdrug policy reform.Hissuccessas a public speaker,partially due to his purring voice andeasewithnormalizingthis once-shunned topic,haselevated him to aprominentposition in themovement to revivepsychedelics.

Hes really emerged as a leader in organizing serious professional and cultural events around psychedelics, says AndrewTatarsky,the founder and director of the Center for Optimal Living, a treatment facility for those with substance use issues.TatarskycallsGoldsmitharenaissance man,a guy whos really thinking at a very high level.He has a kind of encyclopedia grasp of the psychedelic literature, the research, and the history.

Goldsmithbeganexperimentingwith psychedelics as a college student in the early70s at Case Western Reserve University, where his listed activities and societies on LinkedIninclude, pre-med hippie. Yetthe drugsdidnt give him the deep, self-explorative experience he wouldlaterencounteras a middle-aged man.Rather,it wasthe mother of all tripsin 1991 that awakened himto understanding humanitys natural state, he says.

That yearhetooka blotterLSDfor the first time in nineteen years,at a relatives suggestion. Following some initial panicky feelings andthe need to pastereassuringPost-It notes aroundthehouse,Goldsmithsettled intothevisions.With his eyes closed, he followed himselfsinkingdeepintothesoilwhere hecame acrossa glowing, throbbing orb, which he then touched.

I hadrealized,in essence,I was perfect, he says, explaining that hed found his core,aplaceof puritywhen everyone was sweet and wonderfulbefore your parents fucked you up.To demonstrate this inconcreteterms, he spreads his legs, lifts the right one and grabs his crotch.

This is the fundamental existence, he says,launching intoan explanationof the seven levels of chakra and how hallucinogens illuminatethis path.

Over the past twenty years, Goldsmith hasgiven dozens of lecturesandWebinars,facilitatedpanel discussions,writtenforPsychology Todayandappearedon podcasts.His mostinfluentialstrideshave beenas the host ofHorizons, a psychedelics conference in New York each fall,and his2011bookcalledPsychedelic Healing: The Promise ofEntheogensfor Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development,whichTatarskyrefers to as the premiere book on psychedelics and emotional healing.

Its only in recent years thatstudying the positive effects of psychedelicshasgained traction in mainstream media after several well-known studies emerged followinga decades long ban of its use in labs and clinical trials since 1970.Goldsmiths leverage has helped publicize the results.

Foran outside person who isnt directly involved in the research, Neal has really been helpful andveryambitious in bringing the findings to the general public in his lectures and his book, says Dr. AnthonyBossis, a co-principal investigator of the New York UniversitysPsilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, which examined how the main psychoactive ingredient in mushrooms can alleviate angst about dying.

Hes been one of the most intelligent champions for psychedelics as medicine, says Alex Grey, a visionary painter. At this point, at least the info is getting outthere thatthere has been a rebirth and worldwide international interest in and experiences of psychedelics.

Still, Goldsmith wantsto seemore.

These new studies are a good start, but far from ideal,he writesin his book.

***

Now that hes smoking a jointat the wheel, Goldsmith adheres to the traffic rules.Only the silver coloring of his hair, an enviable, feathery plumage, andsomefaint smile lines give away his age. At 65, his skin still glows and stretches taut across hisforehead.He wears a black stud in the left lobe andacabin-cozycable-knit cardigan with slacks for the occasion.

Aftercarefullycruisingup Bowery to Cooper Union, hesnagsaparkingspotinfront of the apartment building that for the past ten years has been home to his monthly, word-of-mouthsalon called PoetryScience Talks or PST(pssst).

In a loft on the third floor, about45peoplewhosigned up to heara lectureabout the mind-body problem fromthe science journalist JohnHorganand engage in alively, albeitsomewhat abstract, discussion, begin arriving.Some attendees include a sex therapist, a psychedelics lawyer and a shaman.

As the guests mingleon couches, chatting about God and evolution,orin the kitchen near aspreadof homemadecharredchicken(madeto representones sense of desire), cauliflower (brain-shaped), and devils food cake (indulgence), Goldsmith taps the shoulders offourguests includingan investment bankerand whispers, Were going to the roof, whichiscode for, Letsgosmokenow.

Aftera couplehitsand light gossip,Goldsmith heads backto the elevatorwherethe building manager stops to question himlike aparent who whiffed somepot.After assuringthe man hes visiting a friendandreturningsafelybacktothe third floor,Goldsmith runshis fingertipsalong the hallway walland muses about the night ahead.Hemight call up a womanlater.

There is something appealing about me, he says, referring to howquicklywomen flock to him.They like my standing in the psychedelic community and that Im intelligent.

During the discussion,Goldsmith interjects from the back,where hes been taking notes on his iPhone, to challengeHorgansviewpoints includinga statementthat consciousness comes out of matter and anotherreferencing thephrasepeople who are too smart to believe in God.

Whenthe salon ends attenp.m., Goldsmith looks tired but no less assured of his ability tokeepa room rapt.

Theres no one like me, he says. Iama genius actually, but thats a numerical thing.

Britta Lokting is a writer and journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice and The Forward, among other publications. She is also a Narratively Features Reporter.

Original post:

Meet The People's Champion of Psychedelic Drugs - Narratively

(A New Understanding)

Psychedelic substances like LSD and psilocybin the active ingredient in magic mushrooms are powerful, able to transform the way that people who use them perceivethe world.

Because of that, after years of prohibition, psychiatric researchers in the US are hoping to take advantage of that power to transform mental health treatment.

And as the new documentary "A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin" shows, the results we've seen so far are powerful. Perhaps most interestingly, the film shows how these substances transformthe people who undergo this therapy.

"Psilocybin does in 30 seconds what antidepressants take three to four weeks to do," David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London explains in the film. Researchers have found that a single dose of psilocybin accompanied by therapy can have a transformational effect on mental health like a "surgical intervention" able to treat even cases of depression and anxiety that resist standard treatment.

The film follows the researchers and study participants that are at the forefront of this modern era of psychedelic study. Cancer patients facing distress about end of life talk about how their experience helps them overcome that distress and accept their condition. Healthy volunteers who took psilocybin for the first time to help show that it can be used safely in a therapeutic setting describe the way the "trip" changed their perception.

It's fascinating to see.

On a basic level, a part of the brain that seems to coordinate mood and is very active in cases of depression seems to basically quiet downfor a time, allowing connections to form between regions of the brain that rarely communicate with each other. This mimics an effect seen in the minds of long term meditators. Something in this experience seems to cause the "trippy" effects of the drug, which participants in this research undergowhile listening to music and sitting with trained observers.

"In terms of whether these agents cause hallucinations, they're a little bit misclassified, a hallucination is an experience in some sensory phenomenon based on a stimuli that doesn't exist in reality, it's internally generated," says Stephen Ross, an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, in an interview in the film. "Versus an illusion would be looking at the wall and the wall is melting, that would be an illusion, and these drugs tend to cause more illusions than frank hallucinations, they alter how we perceive real stimuli."

In order to cause these effects, these drugs activate serotonin 2a receptors, explains David Nichols, president and co-founder of the Heffter Research Institute.

But something about this experience the brain activation, illusions, and hallucinations seems to do something more profound that's harder to understand. It's able to reliably cause what researchers call a "mystical experience." That experience is strongly linked with lasting effects.

"It was like you're at the top of a roller coaster and you're about to go down and I remember inside myself saying, 'I'm taking my mind with me, I don't know where I'm going but I'm taking my mind with me' ... and I felt okay and off I went," says Sandy, one of the healthy volunteers who tried psilocybin for the first time, describing her experience.

People return from that journey changed.

"When we came back it was like someone had put on a light bulb inside Annie's head, she was literally glowing," says the husband of one terminally ill patient in one of these psilocybin studies at UCLA. "I felt wonderful, I think it's an incredibly useful tool ... what we did, it probably would have taken me years of therapy," she agrees.

You can watch the trailer for the film below and a current version of it can be rented from Vimeo.

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