Monthly Archives: February 2017

Public health officials are calling the opioid crisis the worst drug epidemic in American history.

Overdoses claimed more than 33,000 lives in 2015, and these numbers are steadily on the rise. Its estimated that over 2 million people in the U.S. are addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, with many more using the drugs illegally.

Potential solutions to the rapidly escalating opioid crisis have been few and far between. But a long-demonized class of illegal drugs may provide one unlikely approach to tackling widespread opiate abuse and addiction.

A new study, published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that experience with psychedelics was linked with decreased opioid abuse and addiction an effect that appears to be unique to hallucinogens and marijuana. Conversely, use of other illegal drugs such as cocaine was associated with an increased risk of opioid abuse and dependence.

The findings underscore the positive psychological effects increasingly known to be associated with psychedelic experiences. Previous findings have linked psychedelic use with reduced psychological distress and a decreased risk of suicide, while a 2011 Johns Hopkins study showed a single trip on psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) resulted in lasting positive personality changes such as increases in openness to experience, a trait associated with creativity and open-mindedness.

Studies have shown drugs like LSD and psilocybin as well as ayahuasca and ibogaine, plant medicines with a long history of use in indigenous cultures to be effective as therapeutic agents for addiction recovery. This new study is the first, however, to show a link between psychedelic use and decreased abuse of other illegal drugs in the general population.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data on 44,000 illicit opioid users who completed the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2008 and 2013, controlling for socio-economic factors like education and income level.

Among people with a history of illegal opiate use, those with some psychedelic experience were 40 percent less likely to report abusing opiates the past year, and 27 percent less likely to report opioid dependency in the past year. Marijuana use was associated with a 55 percent reduced risk of opiate abuse.

No other illegal drugs were associated with a lowered risk of opioid abuse and addiction, and some even carried an increased risk.

While the findings dont prove a causal effect, the strong correlation between psychedelic experience and reduced opioid use and abuse seems to warrant further investigation.

Of course, its important to note that psychedelics also carry a risk for abuse. But researchers have found that when used under careful conditions, in the proper set and setting,the risk for adverse effects is relatively low. (Set refers to the users mindset and expectations at the time of ingesting the drug, while setting suggests a good physical environment.) And contrary to popular myths, use of LSD and similar drugs is not associated with an increased risk of developing mental illness.

These findings are only the latest to suggest that public opinion and policy around psychedelics lags woefully behind the science. Demonized in the wake of Timothy Leary-era excesses and made into public enemies by the former Richard Nixon administration, drugs like LSD and psilocybin were made out to be dangerous and addictive.

With the passing of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, theDrug Enforcement Agencyhas listed LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs as Schedule I substances, meaning that they were deemed to have no medical value and high risk for abuse. They are the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence, as the United Patients Groups explains. Drugs of this class are generally illegal.

Aside from heroin, most other opiates are listed in the less restrictive Schedule II and Schedule III, alongside other drugs considered less dangerous and more medically valuable than those in Schedule I.

Now, 50 years later, the war on drugs is widely regarded as a public policy failure. The lingering stigma against psychedelic drugs is slowly fading as rigorous scientific studies continue to demonstrate the compounds to have real medical value. An exciting and rapidly growing field of research is revealing psychedelic compounds to carry striking potential as a therapeutic agent for treating ailments ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to cancer-related anxiety and depression to cigarette addiction.

Marijuana, which is also listed as a Schedule I drug, has also proved to be an extremely promising tool for tackling the opioid epidemic. Many patients have turned to cannabis to relieve pain and to curb their reliance on prescription painkillers and, in states where marijuana is legal, there are fewer deaths from opioid overdose. Last year, Maine became the first state to petition to include opioid addiction in the list of ailments that can be treated by medical marijuana, although the health department denied the request.

With the specter of Obamacare repeal now threatening to cut treatment access for hundreds of thousands of people with opioid use disorders, more health experts could start to embrace these promising yet unconventional treatment options in the coming years.

Original post:

Psychedelics Could Play A Role In Tackling The Opioid Epidemic - Huffington Post

NEW YORK(ENEWSPF)February 23, 2017 By: Jag Davies

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 criminal justice and healthcare paradigms.

Jag Davies is the director of communications strategy for the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)

Source: http://drugpolicy.org

See the article here:

Psychedelics Help Reduce Opioid Addiction, According to New Study - eNews Park Forest