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Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

nytimes.com

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Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#31

Post by mirceal »

I recommend “Food of the Gods” https://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolutio... to anyone that’s interested in what role magic mushrooms may have played in the evolution of humans. It also does an interesting job in talking about what drugs are legal and what drugs are illegal (and the somewhat arbitrary demarcation line between what’s socially acceptable (alcohol, caffeine, sugar, tobacco) and what is not and will put you behind bars).

Take it w/ a grain of salt but it’s definitely thought provoking.

Also keep in mind that it was written in 1993 but does a pretty good job of anticipating the legalization of marijuana and the eventual decriminalization of moslty all drugs on Schedule I that were put there without any kind of research or backing data (psilocybin, DMT and friends)

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#32

Post by blueprint »

goodroot wrote: post #14

Psychedelic mushrooms are powerful medicine. They have a psychoactive effect which alters brain chemistry and helps neurological disorder. We can see that in the paper. But then so do anti-depressants. I believe the key difference between plant medicines like mushrooms, Peyote, Ayahuasca and others and clinical mood altering medicine is within the ecstatic experience. It is one to thing to have a pill lead you to an…

> These profoundly "real" experiences appear to be essential to the healing process.

Careful now. Surely you don't mean that no healing can take place in the absence of ayahuasca.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#34

Post by dang »

byron_fast wrote: post #30

The fact that things like mushrooms are illegal is a great example of government programs that are ill-conceived, purely destructive, and take decades to kill.

Maybe so, but please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. It leads to generic ideological flamewars, which are toxic and predictable.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#35

Post by mistermann »

gonehome wrote: post #27
DenisM wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How bad are the bad trips? And how often they appear?

This is the main reason why psychedelics are so high risk - the variation of the experience makes them hard to recommend in any serious way. It's not even a bad trip necessarily, a positive trip can still cause after affects, increased risk of psychotic episodes, or pretty severe anxiety and it's very hard to predict whether or not you'll be unlucky.

Calling something high risk I think suggests some combination of likelihood and magnitude of harm - can you possibly speak to these two aspects, so we might have some idea of how high risk they are?

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#36

Post by byron_fast »

dang wrote: post #34
byron_fast wrote: post #30

The fact that things like mushrooms are illegal is a great example of government programs that are ill-conceived, purely destructive, and take decades to kill.

Maybe so, but please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. It leads to generic ideological flamewars, which are toxic and predictable. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Okay.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#37

Post by uxp100 »

jrace wrote: post #24
tchrowaway15123 wrote: post #16

Warning: anecdotes ahead. I would like to add some counterpoint to the otherwise seemingly endless supply of HN enthusiasm for psychedelics. Personally, I like psychedelics. I have an annual(ish) tradition of tripping somewhere really pretty. I think that the personal growth and emotional... trip is fun and worthwhile. However, my girlfriend had a bad trip and was scared of large trees for months. And I'd rate my gir…

You are using an experience of a "mentally stable" person to dictate the treatment of "mentally unstable" people. The effects of Ritalin on a non-ADHD person are the opposite to what happens when an ADHD person takes them. I appreciate the spirit behind your message however. I think we are at the point where we can start research with mentally unstable people. It has been shown that there is little permanent issues f…

>The effects of Ritalin on a non-ADHD person are the opposite to what happens when an ADHD person takes them.

I believe this is false.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#38

Post by dwaltrip »

tchrowaway15123 wrote: post #16

Warning: anecdotes ahead. I would like to add some counterpoint to the otherwise seemingly endless supply of HN enthusiasm for psychedelics. Personally, I like psychedelics. I have an annual(ish) tradition of tripping somewhere really pretty. I think that the personal growth and emotional... trip is fun and worthwhile. However, my girlfriend had a bad trip and was scared of large trees for months. And I'd rate my gir…

I'm sorry about your gitlfriend's experience. I agree that these substances are quite powerful and should be handled with great care.

> I am unconvinced that throwing psychedelics at mentally unstable (unhealthy) people is a good idea.

Fortunately, this isn't what happens. The medicine is administered in sessions with experienced therapists present as guides. Extensive therapy sessions are also conducted in preparation for the treatment as well as for follow-up.

> I do believe that we should allow researchers greater flexibility to experiment with them because it would be worthwhile to understand more about why psychedelics do what they do.

This is (finally) happening. The results that are coming in are quite amazing. For example, the use of guided MDMA therapy sessions to treat severe PTSD was actually granted "breakthrough treatment" status by FDA. It is currently in the last phase of trials before the treatment is FDA approved.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#39

Post by blacksmith_tb »

uxp100 wrote: post #37
jrace wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are using an experience of a "mentally stable" person to dictate the treatment of "mentally unstable" people. The effects of Ritalin on a non-ADHD person are the opposite to what happens when an ADHD person takes them. I appreciate the spirit behind your message however. I think we are at the point where we can start research with mentally unstable people. It has been shown that there is little permanent issues f…

>The effects of Ritalin on a non-ADHD person are the opposite to what happens when an ADHD person takes them. I believe this is false.

"Opposite" may be an overstatement[1], but I take it the general argument is basically a pharmacological version of "one man's meat[2]"

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylphenidate#Uses

2: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one_man%27s_meat_is_another_m...

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Closer to Medicinal Use

#40

Post by jrowley »

Reedx wrote: post #10
jrowley wrote: post #2

If you are interested in learning more about psychedelics, and their context in 2018, I'd recommend UC Berkeley Professor Michael Pollan's latest book "How to Change Your Mind". It is a really nice, easy to read primer on the topic, and his experience with psychedelics. He approaches the topic with a scientific yet accessible tone, and he asks and answers lots of good questions. Pollan interviews many of the people m…

He also gave a great talk about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuhmZSFvhL0 Well worth a watch for anyone even remotely interested in the topic.

This talk is excellent, and I've already read the book. Thanks for sharing!
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