LSD should be considered for alcoholism treatment, study says

[MindMover]

Last edited Fri Mar 9, 2012, 05:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CBS

(CBS News) Decades ago, researchers would examine LSD's effects on various health conditions including pain, anxiety, and alcoholism. A new study suggests it might be time to revisit the mind-altering drug's therapeutic uses. The study found lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as acid, could help serious alcoholics sober up.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57394097-10391704/lsd-should-be-considered-for-alcoholism-treatment-study-says/?

---

Who would have thought that one trip could replace another trip.....

[Vincardog]

1. LSD has long been recognized as a great psychiatric tool.

[nanabugg]

27. So, instead of driving under influence, folks will be able to fly under the influence? nt

[Vincardog]

29. In a safe place yes

[onehandle]

2. Pouring gasoline on the fire. Flame away, but more drugs will not help everyone.

How do you know which patients aren't going to go completely off the edge?

[kenfrequed]

5. That is a misunderstanding of the function of a Hallucinagen.

It does not have the same function, effect, side effect, and has almost nothing in common with alcohol.

Pouring gas on a fire would be giving an alcoholic more liquor or prescription depression-inducing medication as that is the drugs classification.

[CanSocDem]

6. That's incorrect.

As the first reply noted, LSD has a docuemented history treating, among other things, alcoholism.

http://www.psychedelic-library.org/savage.htm

............................................................................................................

In the late 1950s and the 1960s a battle was waged between researchers in Saskatchewan who were attempting to prove that LSD was an effective treatment for alcoholism and researchers in Toronto who were attempting to prove that it was not. Methodological flaws in the experiments on both sides of the argument make the results inconclusive. Then along came the war on drugs and research into this potentially effective treatment for alcoholism ground to a screeching halt before we had conclusive answers.

http://hamsnetwork.org/lsd/

http://www.psychedelic-library.org/staf42.htm

Since this early study, LSD has become better understood, and several "psychedelic methods" have been developed for alcoholic patients. As a result, abstinence and rehabilitation rates have been further upgraded. In 1959, at the Josiah Macy Conference on LSD, Dr. Hoffer was able to announce that he and his colleagues had treated sixty "very difficult psychopathic alcoholics" and that after a five-year follow-up,
"... half of them were no longer drinking. You will not believe it, and I would not have, either. The results are very impressive...."


.

[drokhole]

8. "The first thing I think we must be clear about is that the word 'drugs' is very misleading."

- Alan Watts

[loyalsister]

30. Nicotine and caffeine are common replacements

Both are substances that offer a mild physical\mental change. Why would anyone really believe that another substance that has conscious altering effects would not be prime for abuse?
Addiction is more than a chemical problem. It is behavioral and attitudinal, ingrained responses to stress, etc.. I think it is misguided to believe those things can be changed with an acid trip.

[panader0]

3. As one who took acid quite often in the late 60's through the 70's,

I believe that it has the potential for not only treatment of alchoholism but alzheimers as well. LSD could provide a brain with new paths of neural communication. Trouble is, I've lost my connection.
PS: whatever happened to the spell checker?

[wordpix]

19. my mom has late stage Alzheimer's & I would not want to see her on LSD

She is on enough of a strange trip with Alzheimer's and already hallucinates lots of weird stuff

[waddirum]

20. that's the problem

In the 50s and early 60s, one could obtain product directly from Sandoz
In the late 60s, one could obtain black market product from "Bear" Owsley's bathtub (still pretty reliable)

However, since those heady days, one now has to rely on shady folk. Even the Dead and Phish scenes are/were sketchy as hell.

[Newest Reality]

4. That's already

been investigated. Back in the day, there were some experiments on alcoholism, prison recidivism, etc. Then, suddenly, the lid was put on the substance. We are now revisiting the effects and benefits of entheogens.

LSD is non-addictive in the usual sense and, under the right conditions with the right therapist(s) it can and does offer life-changing epiphanies, insights and transformation.

It really isn't the replacement of one trip for another, per se. After a few good sessions, their is no need to keep taking LSD except for reinforcements, if needs be.

I'm sure for those unfamiliar with substances of these kinds and their effects, further research will serve to erode the cultural bias induced by the drug war which has created a negative mythology about certain substances while promoting others to fulfill certain agendas.

[bayareaboy]

7. I will drink to that!

at one time I shared bunks at a local county jail, with a fella named Vic Lovell, the shrink who turned on Ken Kesey at a VA hospital here in the bay area. One of Mr Lovell's works was LSD and alcoholism.

[waddirum]

25. farfuckingout

Look what I found in this great, deep internet:

http://midpeninsulafreeu.com/

[wiggs]

28. Coincidence! Just read about Lovell in a bood called Remembering the Sixties by Robert Stone

Liking the book so far.

[xtraxritical]

9. Bill Wilson (one of the two founders of AA)

took LSD under psychiatric supervision to combat the effects of sever depression that he experienced when he quit drinking. You can read about this on Wikipedia.

[bathroommonkey76]

15. I used to attend AA meetings and I was always interested in this chapter of Bill W's

life.

Bill is quoted as saying:

It is a generally acknowledged fact in spiritual development that ego reduction makes the influx of God's grace possible. If, therefore, under LSD we can have a temporary reduction, so that we can better see what we are and where we are going — well, that might be of some help. The goal might become clearer. So I consider LSD to be of some value to some people, and practically no damage to anyone. It will never take the place of any of the existing means by which we can reduce the ego, and keep it reduced.

See pages 370 & 371 in Pass It On.

http://www.aacanada.com/history.html

[olddad56]

10. LSD certainly saved me from alcoholism, and possibly even worse, like being a republican

It definitely can change your consciousness, your social awareness, your spirituality (not religion), in one dose. It can also ruin your whole life in one dose. It is that powerful.

I wouldn't neccessarily promote the use of LSD unless the person taking it was in a optimal setting and accompanied by well trained expert in using LSD in a therauptic setting.

I had some incredible, positive, life changing trips. They seemed to take place when I used it in the daytime, in a beautiful, natural surounding. Had a couple of very scarry trips when taken at night in a city.

Took it maybe 10-15 times total. All while I was in my 20s, back in the early 70s. Overall, way more good than bad for me, but that is just my experience. Not neccessarily anyone elses.

[man4allcats]

11. I know a number of people at

Jimmie's Ice House in the Houston Heights that would happily volunteer as research subjects for such a study. Come to think of it, I'd join them. It's been awhile since I dropped a tab.

[MindMover]

12. OMG, now that is funny.....

[madokie]

13. I'd like to take a trip on some real lsd

some of that shit we took years ago I'm not so sure of its lineage or where in what conditions it was made.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. An expert said this was "as good as anything we've got".

Thanks for posting this, I was just about to post an article I saw at BBC:
LSD 'helps alcoholics to give up drinking'

LSD has also been investigated as a treatment for people with crippling migraines.

[MindMover]

16. And thank you for checking before posting, I always google a site search before I post

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Thanks, but it doesn't always work ...

sometime the headlines that appear in, say, the BBC and American newspapers don't have even one keyword in common between them, despite being drawn from the same sources (even the same press release).

Still, a quick DUgle is better than nothing. I'm wishing that something could be built into DU itself, so that the "Good citizens check for duplicates!" message is replaced by something that does a limited auto-search itself.

[saras]

17. It's a long hard road...

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

[waddirum]

18. I'd rather seek treatment from LSD than LDS

I'd rather crack open a can o' bis than a can o' beer.

[GliderGuider]

21. And this comes out the same day Peter Bergman of Firesign Theater dies.

If someone who commits felonies is a felon, then God is an iron.

[MindMover]

22. "If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton.....

"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron." — Spider Robinson

[GliderGuider]

23. That's the one...

Spider has a way with words.

[edgineered]

24. Ram Dass - Experiments in Truth tells of the

Maharaji trying LSD and his take on it.

All this can be found through search engines, but listening to Experiments in Truth is well worth the time.

[freshwest]

31. Here are Cary Grant's words on his battle with many years of depression and doctors giving him LSD.

Last edited Sun Mar 11, 2012, 06:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Whatever the original source that I remembered hearing that one of my favorite actors used LSD, I can't find it. Doing a quick google on this today I found his own words, if the source is correct, about what LSD did to alleviate the condition that was causing him great suffering and making his off screen life difficult. I also found several search results where his wife Dyan Cannon complained about his using it. But here is what I found at the link:

Cary Grant, who took LSD more than sixty times under the therapeutic auspices of Dr. Mortimer Hartmann and then Dr. Oscar Janiger, had this to say about his treatment in 1959:

"All my life, I've been searching for peace of mind. I'd explored yoga and hypnotism and made several attempts at mysticism. Nothing really seemed to give me what I wanted until this treatment."

"I have been born again. I have been through a psychiatric experience which has completely changed me. I was horrendous. I had to face things about myself which I never admitted, which I didn't know were there. Now I know that I hurt every woman I ever loved. I was an utter fake, a self-opinionated bore, a know-all who knew very little. I found I was hiding behind all kinds of defenses, hypocrisies and vanities. I had to get rid of them layer by layer. The moment when your conscious meets your subconscious is a hell of a wrench. With me there came a day when I saw the light."

http://www.psymon.com/psychedelia/images/carygrant.html

We've been scared away from alternatives and what people have used for centuries or more to expand our thinking, to break out of the box of what we've been spoonfed about reality. We've been taught to think the way we do, not for our own benefit in many regards, but for the uses of the powerful who waste our entire lives.

I watched a video recently claiming we also have been subjected to a form of mind control from the vegetable kingdom, effecting our brains for their own nefarious purposes. Oh, the horror!

Maybe this is just part of becoming 'one with all that is,' and this fabulous planet we find ourselves upon. I'll post the video link if anyone is interested.

Nice thread, don't know if I want to do any LSD, because as one person commented, I don't trust the pharmaceutical companies that make these. The government in the past also forced LSD onto unwilling people, using them as lab rats, not for their own good. Neither do I ascribe to any religious or spiritual meaning to the partaking of drugs or in not taking drugs.

[MindMover]

32. thank you for your post, very informative and helpful......

[freshwest]

33. Thanks, I find your threads to be a breath of fresh air.