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Magic mushrooms could have medical benefits

obeygiant

obeygiant

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Original poster
Jan 14, 2002
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totally cool
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The hallucinogen in magic mushrooms may no longer just be for hippies seeking a trippy high.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of psilocybin, a chemical found in some psychedelic mushrooms, that's credited with inducing transcendental states. Now, they say, they've zeroed in on the perfect dosage level to produce transformative mystical and spiritual experiences that offer long-lasting life-changing benefits, while carrying little risk of negative reactions.

The breakthrough could speed the day when doctors use psilocybin--long viewed skeptically for its association with 1960s countercultural thrill-seekers--for a range of valuable clinical functions, like easing the anxiety of terminally ill patients, treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and helping smokers quit. Already, studies in which depressed cancer patients were given the drug have reported positive results. "I'm not afraid to die anymore" one participant told The Lookout.

The Johns Hopkins study--whose results will be published this week in the journal Psychopharmacology--involved giving healthy volunteers varying doses of psilocybin in a controlled and supportive setting, over four separate sessions. Looking back more than a year later, 94 percent of participants rated it as one of the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lifetimes.

Identifying the exact right dosage for hallucinogenic drugs is crucial, Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who led the study, explained to The Lookout. That's because a "bad trip" can trigger hazardous, self-destructive behavior, but low doses don't produce the kind of transformative experiences that can offer long-term benefits. By trying a range of doses, Griffiths said, researchers were able to find the sweet spot, "where a high or intermediate dose can produce, fairly reliably, these mystical experiences, with very low probability of a significant fear reaction."

The hope is that the long-lasting spiritual and transcendental experiences associated with psilocybin could--if conducted in a controlled and supportive setting, and with appropriate dosage levels--help ease patients' fear and anxiety, allowing them to approach death with a greater sense of calm. (You can see one terminally ill cancer patient speak movingly about the positive effects of psilocybin here.)
Griffiths thinks the drug may have the potential to alleviate the suffering of terminal patients. He's currently leading a separate Johns Hopkins psilocybin study, using volunteers who are depressed after being diagnosed with cancer. "So far we've had--anecdotally only--very positive results," comparable to the study with healthy volunteers, he said. A study from the University of California, Los Angeles last year reported similar positive results.
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I read a article a year or two ago where some doctors were starting a clinical run of this for soldiers with PTSD. Like this article they were using a very low dosage of psilocybin in hopes that it would block or help the patient cope with their PTSD and eventually make it non existent.
 
Unfortunately people will be consuming them to get high rather than for its beneficial medical properties. You bet people will start inventing symptoms in order to use them.

Things are always good in moderation. Unfortunately, again, this didn't happen say, in Holland, where cannabis is legal. They've recently pushed a law that only allows the Dutch to buy the stuff, no more drug-oriented tourism.
 
ratzzo said:
Unfortunately people will be consuming them to get high rather than for its beneficial medical properties. You bet people will start inventing symptoms in order to use them.

Things are always good in moderation. Unfortunately, again, this didn't happen say, in Holland, where cannabis is legal. They've recently pushed a law that only allows the Dutch to buy the stuff, no more drug-oriented tourism.
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Everyone shouldn't be punished or denied the informed choice just because of the minority of potential abusers. Besides, things like cannabis, mushrooms and LSD are a hell of a lot safer than things which are legal. You can't OD/die on any of them, no matter how crappy you may feel.
Scientific researchers and advisers have repeatedly stated the drugs policies are flawed, only to have it fall on deaf, agenda/propaganda-pushing politician ears who are too cowardly to face the facts and admit they're wrong. Then for speaking up, scientists get fired for not conforming to what the gov wants to hear.

And Holland is shooting itself in the foot by passing such a short-sighted law which will decrease their tourism MASSIVELY.
 
ratzzo said:
Unfortunately people will be consuming them to get high rather than for its beneficial medical properties. You bet people will start inventing symptoms in order to use them.
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Like they already do to get xanax, addaral, oxycontin, valium and other drugs?

Those drugs being addictive, physically harmful when abused and seemingly in use by a *vast* number of americans. Psilocybin is none of these things, in fact it's anti-addictive. If you take it a few days running it'll just stop working.

The trouble with that line of argument is it's completely and utterly inconsistent, harmful drug A is prescribed, whereas non-harmful consciousness expanding drug B is illegal and can ruin your life if you're caught in possession of it. This being a drug that grows naturally all over the world, that's been used by humans for millennia.
 
Mord said:
I don't think it's just that, anyone can brew alcohol, anyone can grow tobacco.
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Yes, but they are both taxed.

Brew beer or make wine, yes. Distillation is still (LOL) a criminal offence, such that you need a license for a Lieburg condenser. I think. ;)

Not sure about growing tobacco, but it takes more post-harvest processing than pot does. A friend grew his own, in a back corner of his garden. He just hung it, up-side-down, in a dark cupboard for a couple of weeks, and it was good to "go". :D
 
iBlue said:
Everyone shouldn't be punished or denied the informed choice just because of the minority of potential abusers. Besides, things like cannabis, mushrooms and LSD are a hell of a lot safer than things which are legal. You can't OD/die on any of them, no matter how crappy you may feel.
Scientific researchers and advisers have repeatedly stated the drugs policies are flawed, only to have it fall on deaf, agenda/propaganda-pushing politician ears who are too cowardly to face the facts and admit they're wrong. Then for speaking up, scientists get fired for not conforming to what the gov wants to hear.

And Holland is shooting itself in the foot by passing such a short-sighted law which will decrease their tourism MASSIVELY.
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I agree with you there and while you can't OD on LSD it can certainly make you crazy. I know a few people who used to sip on vials and munch on sheets (100 hits) and didn't feel straight for years.

I have a somewhat good friend of mine, he said after his super intense LSD days it took him about 2 years before he felt somewhat normal, took about a year before he could speak normally.

And although he probably doesn't realize it, he's still a little loopy if you ask me but who knows what caused that.

Smoking a bunch of cannabis will just make you pass out. Eating a ton of mushrooms will just make you throw up. But eating ALOT of LSD will make you... well I'd rather not imagine what that would do.
 
iJohnHenry said:
Yes, but they are both taxed.

Brew beer or make wine, yes. Distillation is still (LOL) a criminal offence, such that you need a license for a Lieburg condenser. I think. ;)

Not sure about growing tobacco, but it takes more post-harvest processing than pot does. A friend grew his own, in a back corner of his garden. He just hung it, up-side-down, in a dark cupboard for a couple of weeks, and it was good to "go". :D
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Point is that they could be taxed just the same. Though you're right that growing weed is ridiculously easy, it grows kinda like, well, a weed (not that I have any personal experience).

I'd still think that most people wouldn't be bothered to. The same would apply to mushrooms, growing them yourself is a hassle, they're easy to cultivate on a commercial scale and wild liberty caps tend to get picked to death as soon as they show up.
 
Mord said:
Point is that they could be taxed just the same.

Though you're right that growing weed is ridiculously easy, it grows kinda like, well, a weed (not that I have any personal experience).
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These points are a Catch-22, as far as The Man is concerned.

They could not possibly market pot as cheaply as it would be for any Black Thumb to successfully grow it. Then the tax on top, for profit for the Government, would be the death of anyone actually buying it. And the quality of Government pot is a joke. (Google Canadian Government pot.)

Nope, their only course of action is to stone-wall <giggle> on it, to protect their taxes on other, legal, life-altering "drugs".
 
Wouldn't it be better to look at LSD first?

It's an extremely important substance, apparently.
 
*LTD* said:
Wouldn't it be better to look at LSD first?

It's an extremely important substance, apparently.
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LSD lasts way longer, so psilocybin is kinda more suited to a clinical setting. 5-6 hours is enough to have the revelations you need and then come back to reality before the day is through, LSD typically has people out of it for 12-14 hours.

Other than the duration and a certain flavour to the experience there's not a whole lot of difference IMO, no one is more important than the other.
 
Mord said:
LSD lasts way longer, so psilocybin is kinda more suited to a clinical setting. 5-6 hours is enough to have the revelations you need and then come back to reality before the day is through, LSD typically has people out of it for 12-14 hours.

Other than the duration and a certain flavour to the experience there's not a whole lot of difference IMO, no one is more important than the other.
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That must be some weird LSD to have you tripping for 12-14 hours. Acid hits in 45min to an hour, then you ride the waves of tripping hard for 3-4 hours. The comedown is very mild.
 
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