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US could soon approve MDMA therapy

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Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#281

Post by taeric »

Alupis wrote: post #275
taeric wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really don't seem to be arguing in good faith. If it is already "illegal to kill someone" and we shouldn't "make it double-illegal", then we don't need vehicular manslaughter laws, either. For that matter, why have any of the regulations on safely operating anything. After all, it would be illegal for the worst case already? Why restrict sales of ingredients that can make meth? Why regulate anything? And how is i…

> Nobody gives a shit about most hunting weapons And here's the issue then. What anti-gun advocates argue are weapons not good for hunting is misguided. Additionally, it doesn't matter if a gun was designed to hunt or not - the gun is an inanimate object. People like to discuss banning AR-15's all day, failing to realize just how many similar-but-not-AR-15's model rifles exist out there, most of which fire the same c…

Nobody is hunting with handguns or high powered rifles with high capacity magazines. Back when I did bird hunt, the entire community would jump on any fool that fired more than the allowed shells in a gun in rapid fire. It is obvious when it happens, and hilarious with how regulated guns actually are in hunting communities.

So, I reiterate. Nobody gives a shit about those. They are instead trotted out as a straw man to silence regulation of weapons.

I'm a little confused by your angle at this point, honest. Gun regulation should go after high capacity items and hand guns. After that, reckless regard to care and storage of munitions. Could probably move to control of the ammunition, as I can think of frightening few reasons for folks to have hollow point or incendiary rounds? Unsure that would make any real impact. Controlling handguns, though, is clearly something that should be done. It sounds like you agree there? Why sideline it with talking about how people are talking about AR-15s inaccurately? You literally brought that into this conversation.

If you want to know why bombing has gotten less, btw. It almost certainly went with more regulation of the ingredients that go into bombs. If you buy a lot of the ingredients that go into TNT, expect you will be rightfully checked up on.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#282

Post by vonnik »

Contrary data point to encourage caution with MDMA:

MDMA can reset your dopamine baseline much lower. That is, after you come down, you may feel depressed, and it may be hard to climb out of that depression for a while.

Use caution please.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#283

Post by caseyohara »

vonnik wrote: post #282

Contrary data point to encourage caution with MDMA: MDMA can reset your dopamine baseline much lower. That is, after you come down, you may feel depressed, and it may be hard to climb out of that depression for a while. Use caution please.

I think you mean serotonin. MDMA causes greater release of serotonin and norepinephrine than of dopamine, and dopamine resets to baseline much faster than serotonin.

> MDMA-exposed primates showed reduced numbers of serotonergic neurons 7 years later, indicating that some of MDMA’s effect on the brain can be long lasting.

> Low serotonin is associated with poor memory and depressed mood, thus these findings are consistent with studies in humans that have shown that some people who use MDMA regularly experience confusion, depression, anxiety, paranoia, and impairment of memory and attention processes. In addition, studies have found that the extent of MDMA use in humans correlates with a decrease in serotonin metabolites and other markers of serotonin function and the degree of memory impairment.

Great resource with lots of citations: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/mdma-ecst...

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#284

Post by pmoriarty »

opportune wrote: post #274
wnolens wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to read your journey. Glad you found a way through. I had a similar experience to the first half of your story. Was so unfulfilled in tech that I ended up quitting and took time off not working, trying lots of different things, getting very frustrated and depressed along the way. I did try LSD (ok, a lot of LSD) and instead of it helping me process/sort through/integrate some of my troubles it added new ones and…

LSD also gave me recurring intrusive thoughts for about 5 years after taking it. I’m better now but I wish more people knew about the potential risks because it wasn’t worth feeling “enlightened” for a few hours while on the drug Based on my experiences I think MDMA likely has much more therapeutic value. To me regular psychedelics merely give the illusion of profoundness rather than actual profoundness, though I’ve…

"LSD also gave me recurring intrusive thoughts for about 5 years after taking it."

There are definitely risks, but also ways to minimize the chance of negative effects and to constructively handle them afterwards.

All too many people go in strong psychedelic sessions with little preparation, in very poor settings, without experienced people they respect and trust around, and often even without knowing the substance or the dose of what they're taking.

If there are negative effects during the trip they don't know how to handle them, and many are lost as to what to do afterwards, and don't take advantage of support offered by trained psychedelic therapists or even ordinary psychologists.

It's a formula for increasing the odds of trauma and subsequent PTSD.

If anyone is considering taking psychedelics, please, please educate yourself thoroughly on them and how to use them constructively, test them, and know with certainty the dose you are taking, and take them only with experienced people you like and trust.

James Fadiman's Psychedelics Explorers Guide*[1] is a great resource for this.

[1] - https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelic-Explorers-Guide-Therapeut...

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#285

Post by PuppyTailWags »

publichealthrow wrote: post #90
HopenHeyHi wrote: post #2

[flagged]

> We just need a Timothy Leary type professor to kick off this decade into what is clearly set to be a repeat of the 1960s. I registered an account for the day via Tor, I encourage others to do so while that's possible. (In a non-abusive way.) American Millennial here. Sorry... United States resident . Gotta be mindful 'America' has many countries... We don't need some professor handing out acid tabs, we need profess…

> we need professors who avoid politics entirely but strongly encourage their students to vote, then educate them such that we repeal the bullshit drug laws Nixon passed back during Vietnam as a way to coerce those who wouldn't fight in that travesty.

I don't understand, because encouraging students to vote and educating them to be anti-strict drug law are both political positions.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#286

Post by tootie »

chriscappuccio wrote: post #129

"an era of psychedelic medicine" these platitudes are deceiving sure, some people will get an advantage from these treatments never the less, this is no revolution. in US during the early 80s we had MDMA being made in huge quantities and being consumed in clubs, in addition to therapists using it in guided sessions. for 40 years since, the likes of rick doblin and his associates have been trying to push for this trea…

Something interesting I learned in my own personal medical journal is that the most popular treatment for cataplexy is sodium oxybate which is very closely related to GHB (aka Rohypnol). It's well-studied, proven effective and widely prescribed. There's even fights over patents. My point being, that this runs counter to any narrative the illicit street drugs are anathema to traditional research. Doctors and biologists do treat all chemicals as chemicals and will develop treatments based on evidence. The evidence behind MDMA (and hallucinogens and ketamine) is compelling, but historically hasn't been worth elevating above other treatments. In the case of cataplexy, there isn't really any other viable treatment so oxybate immediately became the first choice.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#287

Post by _a_a_a_ »

Starcrunch wrote: post #256
wnolens wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice to read your journey. Glad you found a way through. I had a similar experience to the first half of your story. Was so unfulfilled in tech that I ended up quitting and took time off not working, trying lots of different things, getting very frustrated and depressed along the way. I did try LSD (ok, a lot of LSD) and instead of it helping me process/sort through/integrate some of my troubles it added new ones and…

I'm glad to hear from someone else who's honest about their negative experience. Psychedelics seem to somehow have simply amazing PR: plentiful testimonies of their life-changing abilities, encouraging us to try them, but very little acknowledgement of their dark side. The subculture is very quick to brush away anything that goes against the narrative of the "mind-opening wonder drugs that big pharma doesn't want you…

> The subculture is very quick to brush away anything that goes against the narrative of...

Oh here we go again. Give me three comments below (in direct links) that "brush away" the obvious risks. I think you just made stuff up. Of course there are risks.

Maybe the reason a whole lot of people are not complaining about bad experiences is that they are maybe, maybe, not as common as you want them to be.

If you want rational drug discussion then you should probably start with yourself – not everyone suffers from significant harm in drug use.

> I wish someone had warned me.

A little bit of reading around would have shown you there are risks. Either you didn't do your due diligence or you ignored them.

Edit: start here https://www.google.com/search?q=psilocybin+risks

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#288

Post by chiefalchemist »

vinyl7 wrote: post #67
chiefalchemist wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fixing society is a much larger (and ultimately fluid, unsolvable) problem so I feel like whatever people can do to find contentme But why is it unsolvable? As the parent comment noted, these issues aren't as prevalent in other cultures. So why here? Why is these so much pain that needs to be medicated? I'm not anti-meds. I think the re-introduction of MDMA and other formerly alternative meds is a good thing as the…

It's unsolvable because there's no money to be made in fixing society. At least until society decays enough that no one bothers participating anymore and the economy starts to crumble. I've seen an increase in the pursuite of hedonism over the past decade, and what it would take to steer society away from hedonism would be some huge event like 9/11 or ww3 to get people's eyes off the inordinate consumerism and chasin…

That . It might not be a priority, but that still doesn't make it unsolvable.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#289

Post by HybridCurve »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #55
jonfw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that designing the TV layout is not the point, the point is opening yourself to new ideas and empathy, facilitating compromise

This handwaves the problem that two adults cannot reach a compromise without taking a drug. That's a personal problem not being solved, but actually being masked and brushed under the metaphorical rug. Perhaps what they need is relationship counselling? If you anesthetize me, I will protest less when you do something that would otherwise cause me pain, but you haven't taken away my ability to feel pain in the long-te…

MDMA was originally named 'Empathy' for a reason. Establishing an empathetic bridge with a spouse or significant other can have lasting effects which can clear a log jam of grievances. And as with all psychoactive medication, therapy is often part of the treatment.

Obviously, self medicating to perpetuate avoidant or maladaptive behavior is generally considered drug abuse and never recommended.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#290

Post by opportune »

lr4444lr wrote: post #280
opportune wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LSD also gave me recurring intrusive thoughts for about 5 years after taking it. I’m better now but I wish more people knew about the potential risks because it wasn’t worth feeling “enlightened” for a few hours while on the drug Based on my experiences I think MDMA likely has much more therapeutic value. To me regular psychedelics merely give the illusion of profoundness rather than actual profoundness, though I’ve…

After taking it 1 time?

This was after my third time taking it in which I had a “bad trip” featuring those subsequently recurring intrusive thoughts
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