RE: Scientists suggest clinical potential for psychedelic drugs
@1mikeyob
LSD is one of the safest drugs ever manufactured... FAR safer than asprin, or caffeine... trouble is some stupid people have done stupid things (as stupid people tend to), like try to fly by jumping out of a window, or staring into the sun... the odds of lethal overdosing is virtually impossible barring, even at 98-168 hits (over 16000ug or 1mg), and even that will only make people and primates (70kg each) sluggish; and of course highly under the hallucinagenic effects, if you did that many pills of asprin you'd more than likely be dead, esspeciially when mixed with alcohol, with LSD alcohol actually has the exact opposite effect; it lessens the effect of LSD (and likewise LSD is also used to treat alcoholism. the lethal dose would be about 21 times more than that; or a 1/3 of a gram of pure LSD, at that point cardiac problems and muscle ridgitiy can because a cause of death....
like most drugs LSD got a bad rap after nixons drug war started esspecially for LSD and marijuana... in reality it would be PREFERABLE, by actual results, to use either or both to treat things that today are treated by drugs that have far more side effects than the problems they are supposed to be treating (esspecially things like depression). and even asprin; oddly enough LSD can also be used to treat cluster headaches (which effect 1 of every 1000 people)... you just don't want people on LSD driving or operating machinary... really not any worse than a drunk person... maybe alittle less annoying, and maybe likely much more insightful.. but most drunk people can barely think at all, so its not a fairr comparision to begin with... yet alcohol is legal.. and chances are you yourself drink it... and the lethal dose for alcohol is a mere 5 times the legal limit... again... something to consider when talking about how dangerous drugs are.
@Datadad
i'm sure he didn't know why, but he actually did have a point about the placebo's for most drugs to become approved (aside from general safety; toxicity) they only have have an effective rate 5% higher than the placebo in the blind and double blind testing... so in effect many drugs are baseically very expensive placebo's... but it should also be noted that placebo also work, which is usually attributed to the pyschosomatic effect via the person thinking the placebo is the real drug.
@ttheys@...
for one most drug users are responsible people for the most part; at least as much as people in general... generally if for nothing else than to get money to keep getting the drugs...
secondly, this would be by perscription, meaning if they had to be off work it would be the same as a person that can't work because of pain meds, or some medication that they needed that impaired their motor functions and/or significantly affecting their judgement.... or in a more broad sense, esspecially if its a permenant condition, then its akin to being disabled... would you then being against government support of the disabled, or for that matter anyone else who is UNABLE to work via a physical or mental condition.
as for your health insurance... maybe your health insurance wouldn't be so high if whatever country you live in joined the rest of the developed world and had some form of universal healthcare as to not be at the whim of the extortionists that tend to otherwise run healthcare... and FYI smokers (and drinkers) pay a tax which is supposed to help pay for their furture health costs.
@albee_freeoneday
1. actually people were complaining about a) being refused coverage via a pre-existing condition and b) having their coverage canceled, just because they actually needed to use it... and yes healthcare in the US is VASTLY overpriced, partly because of them and also because of the doctors doing every little thing they can to charge people as much as possible (like running more tests than are actually necessary).
2. agreed... but why not have a national insurer as most countries do, even canada (my country) half-asses it in that respect, and as such we pay more than other socialized countries even despite paying 40% less than in the US.
3. that one is simple... because it ILLEGAL to discriminate based on gender.
6.they should, unfortunately the alternative medicine industry has been shunned and had decades of pharmsuetical industry propoganda telling (and in most cases convincing) people that natural medicine is a useless waste of time and money. when infact natural medicine tends to work better and have few side effects.
as for your prior comment SOCIETY does a moral obligation to take care of the least of its kind, otherwise were no better than an animal than its its only young for being a runt in the litter... and if thats the case then we really aren't any more civilized than wild animal are.
@Indian.Maid
the question you need to seriosuly think about is A)why they're illegal in the first place (i'll give you a hint its not because they're dangerous by any stretch of the imagination) and B) should they be illegal, and if so under what justification, and remember because you don't like them is not a justification, thats an opinion and a matter of taste.
Psychedelic drugs such as LSD, ketamine or magic mushrooms could help treat people suffering from depression, compulsive disorders or chronic pain.
Yes, you read that right: mind-altering drugs can help patients alter their perception of pain levels.
But doses of psychedelics must be low and given in combination with therapy sessions to be effective, they said. They must only be given over a short time period, they said, and are best for patients who fail to respond to drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, on the market as Prozac or Paxil.
