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Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

mca-marines.org

51–60 of 151 posts

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#51

It would be interesting to see if microdosing LSD would lead to any ethical objections to war or violence on the part of the Marines.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the tendency for LSD users to ethically object to war or other offensive violence is exactly why the US decided it should be treated as more dangerous than crystal meth (or perfectly legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco and caffeine) despite there being precisely zero evidence of such danger.

While LSD use was associated with anti-war activism during the Vietnam war, and probably did have something to do with it being made illegal, that doesn't mean there was actually a causal relationship between LSD use and anti-war or anti-violence views.

There were, to my knowledge, no scientific studies of this relationship, and anyway it was confounded by the US being in a hugely unpopular war, with the Civil Rights movement making non-violence a popular position among its supporters, and by the fact that there was a draft. Now there's no draft, no war, an all-volunteer military.

Also, back then LSD tended to be used in way higher doses. So even if there was a relationship between large-dose LSD use and anti-violence or anti-war views, that doesn't mean that there'd be a similar connection when microdosing LSD.

Something else to consider is that while in the popular consciousness, LSD is associated with hippies and peacenicks, and psychedelics are also associated with peaceful indigenous peoples around the world, there have been some societies (like the Jivaro) which both used psychedelics and were extremely warlike and violent.

So the connection between psychedelics and anti-violent/anti-war views is far from established. That's why it'd make for a very interesting study.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#52
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the tendency for LSD users to ethically object to war or other offensive violence is exactly why the US decided it should be treated as more dangerous than crystal meth (or perfectly legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco and caffeine) despite there being precisely zero evidence of such danger.

The history of psychedelics include a ton of irresponsible use in the 60s which lead to reactionary banning before there was clear medical uses. Research was happening but nothing conclusive. Meth has established medical uses. There's no conspiracy to prevent people from questioning wars, we do that without drugs anyway.

"Research was happening but nothing conclusive"

I've read that before it was made illegal LSD was the most studied pharmaceutical compound in the world, with literally thousands of papers written on it.

There were clearly medical uses, and it was being used medically. Whether the research was "conclusive" is a matter of opinion.

Pretty much all of the psychedelic researchers I've read or heard interviews with (which is a lot) were completely convinced of its effectiveness.

But that didn't matter to the administrators and lawmakers, who were much more interested in the headlines than the science.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#53

The chart on page 3 suggests cannabis has roughly the same harm to others as tabacco? And steroids present harm to other individuals? I'd love to hear these arguments.

That's a citation from a different study. The original study was "Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis" is based on a survey of experts, if I recall correctly, and the breakdown of the reasoning is in that study.

The major contributing factors for "harm to others" for cannabis, over tobacco, are:

- "Loss of relationships: Extent of loss of relationship with family and friends"

- "Crime: Extent to which the use of a drug involves or leads to an increase in volume of acquisitive crime (beyond the use-of-drug act) directly or indirectly (at the population level, not the individual level)"

- "Family adversities: Extent to which the use of a drug causes family adversities—eg, family breakdown, economic wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, future prospects of children, child neglect"

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#54
post #46
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're all on caffeine already and no one is clutching pearls over it. How is taking harder drugs any different other than in effectiveness?

Whenever threads mention caffeine I am compelled to share that caffeine has no effect whatsoever on me. To my sadness, it feels like I'm excluded from a common universal community and performance advantage

Pretty much the same here.. I drink a lot of coffee just to have a hot drink, but I can drink coffee at night and it doesn't seem to do anything. Maybe a little, but I hardly notice.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#56
post #46
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're all on caffeine already and no one is clutching pearls over it. How is taking harder drugs any different other than in effectiveness?

Whenever threads mention caffeine I am compelled to share that caffeine has no effect whatsoever on me. To my sadness, it feels like I'm excluded from a common universal community and performance advantage

I had the same issue due to excessive coffee drinking. Stopping cold for 2-3 weeks helps to bring back some of the effectiveness later. But any regular dose even after this is rapidly tolerance-building.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#57
post #47
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one thing that terrifies me about moving away from my Dr. if I were to move across the country and suddenly couldn't get my medicine I know I would quickly become a wreck for a week or so well I dealt with all of the comedowns.

.

You seem to be prescribing a medical plan based off of less than two lines of text. That seems, at best, irresponsible.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#58
post #26
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea of performance enhancing drugs making their way into the workplace arena scares me a lot. You say that as if it hasn't already happened, Adderall has been ubiquitous for years. At my last office job we had an intern from out of state miss work abruptly because she couldn't get her Adderall prescription filled, and, I shit you not, skipped work to fly to Nevada to fill her out of state 'script because CA ph…

This is one thing that terrifies me about moving away from my Dr. if I were to move across the country and suddenly couldn't get my medicine I know I would quickly become a wreck for a week or so well I dealt with all of the comedowns.

trans people experience this a lot. It's a big reason why i decided not to get hormones from a doctor and instead order them online.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#59

When I was a child and teen I was a hyperactive, unstimulated, bored, D- student. Ritalin drastically changed that and I was getting A's and teachers described me as a whole different person. I would too: it made me antisocial and jittery and basically robbed me of my humanity. Since then I've found drug-free strategies to manage my intellectual/social Jekyll and Hyde. The idea of performance enhancing drugs making t…

It's more of a warplace than a work place thought. And ppl have been giving solders drugs forever.

Re: Microdosing: Improving performance enhancement in intelligence analysis (2019) [pdf]

#60
post #47
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one thing that terrifies me about moving away from my Dr. if I were to move across the country and suddenly couldn't get my medicine I know I would quickly become a wreck for a week or so well I dealt with all of the comedowns.

.

Be careful about providing pharmaceutical advice over the internet. There may be some prescribed medications that people can safely self-ween from, but stopping psychiatric drugs should only be done with close medical guidance. There have been many documented cases of people stopping too quickly with dire results.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-challenge-...

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