When most people hear the words, lysergic acid diethylamide, or the better-known acronym, LSD, their brain will picture a substance that is deadly, addictive, and detrimental to the overall well-being of society. However; in recent studies and independent experiments, LSD has shown that it could be a breakthrough in the world of medicine and pharmacology. Recall the popular phrase, “If you keep making that face, it will stay like that”, which is told to young children as a scare tactic. This tactic is used to make sure that they follow the rules, and become civilized individuals. The current view on LSD, held by the vast majority of people in the world, has come about due to a similar process. In 1966, LSD was classified as a schedule one drug by the DEA, meaning it was seen to have no medical use, while also being obsessive and addictive. This was more of a response to the social movement of the time, for example, anti-war protestors who were affiliated with the drug. In order to shut down the “hippies”, as it were, the government saw fit to make all hallucinogens, and their consumption, illegal to the public.

However; a side effect of this bad was that funding for scientific experiments that were looking into LSD’s medical potential ceased. Research on the drug now requires extensive permits, and it requires private funding, which has circumscribed progress towards finding the full potential. The laws that classify LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs, “as a Schedule 1 Class A drug makes it almost impossible to use them for research… The reason we [can’t] study [the drugs] is because finding companies who could manufacture the drug and who are prepared to go through the regulatory hoops to get the license, which can take up to a year and triple the price, is proving very difficult. The whole situation is bedeviled by this primitive, old-fashioned attitude that Schedule 1 drugs could never have therapeutic potential, and so they have to be made impossible to access" (Ferro). When it comes to the exact number of scientists with permits, “only 349 scientists have them, and that number is on the downswing” (Ferro). Scientists are being told that they cannot do their own job because there are potential risks. The mindset that even the slightest risk puts a stop to research is flawed and needs to be fixed.

Despite these daunting odds, some scientists pressed on, and found that LSD has many properties that could open a gateway into the future of medicinal use. Vast amounts of brain scans have shown that the drug has had positive effects in individuals who suffer from harmful mental diseases such as, anxiety, depression, and OCD. Reports have also shown that LSD helps some incurable patients cope with their diseases. Even more recent discoveries have actually included proof that LSD, when taken in moderation has no negative long term effects on humans. However; federal agencies, like the DEA and the FDA, who were the first to ban LSD have not wavered from their initial blockade. They stick by their inhibition of access to it which, does make them appear as a strong unyielding force. Everyday parents or guardians also have valid reasons to be concerned that if LSD has a future in medicine, then it will have a future of abuse, just like painkillers, or other prescription drugs. Religious leaders may see the drug as a threat to the practices of their respective faiths. Also, extremists who are against all substance use, may not see LSD as having any reason to be a part of future medicine. Finally, scientists who claim to have found negative correlations that arose from the use of the drug could oppose LSD as well. To clarify, this paper isn’t saying every man woman and child should have the right to trip acid whenever they want. It is also not going to be focusing on the past politics or the past social impact of the drug further than what has already been discussed. This paper will serve to ask the question, how could the use of hallucinogens, like LSD, improve modern medicine, and furthermore, what steps can we take to help make this experimentation easier. It will ask for an open mind so that if there are positive effects, then we can use them to our advantage. This new wave of information and experimentation that accompanies LSD, has just reached the start of its long ride to being a key part of the future of pharmacology.

In a very recent study that ended in 2016, scientists and university professors, David and Charles Nichols, and Matthew Johnson studied experiments that used the drug LSD, or its natural counterpart, psilocybin. It was used on patients with anxiety depression, OCD, and harmful addictions like alcohol. The first topic breached was anxiety, in advanced stage cancer patients who feared dying, and who also had their anxiety diagnosis stem from their cancer diagnosis. Before and after the experiment, patients were given a standard anxiety test, to measure how they felt. The base experiment involved patients taking one small dose of psilocybin or a placebo. According to the findings, “the patients' Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) trait anxiety subscale scores revealed a significant reduction in anxiety at 1 and 3 months after treatment. Similarly, the patients' Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores showed an improvement of mood that reached significance at 6 months compared with baseline” (Nichols). While acceptance of death may not be a top of the line medicinal research or breakthrough, LSD has shown that it could help. However; the classification of hallucinogens still impedes extensive research on this and most other subjects involving them.

Next, the scientists focused on depression. Test subjects were given two doses of LSD, seven days apart, and then made to take a quiz (Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (QIDS)) rating their depression, which was administered after three months. Now, since there was no control group in this specific experiment, for example a placebo group, the results should be taken with little actuality, but there were positive results found again. “QIDS depression scores significantly decreased from baseline at 1 week and 3 months’ posttreatment… All patients showed some reduction in depression severity at 1 week that was sustained in the majority for 3 months. According to standard criteria for determining remission... (67%) of the 12 patients achieved complete remission at 1 week, and seven patients (58%) continued to meet criteria for response at 3 months, with five of them (42%) still in complete remission” (Nichols). Again, hallucinogens showed that they have promise in helping one of the most occurring mental diseases in the world, especially among younger generations.

OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, was another major topic that was focused on by these scientists. Conditions for these patients consisted of oral doses of hallucinogens ranging from 25 micrograms to 300 at one week intervals. There were only nine participants in this respective study, so again with such a small number, the results are not concrete. Despite this, “All nine participants experienced marked symptom reduction during one or more sessions and most experienced relief beyond the expected psilocybin pharmacological life, and beyond the 24-hour assessment” (Nichols). Even though this is a smaller experiment, due to the current restrictions on LSD research, it again shows potential promise in the future of medical, and therapeutic research.

Finally, this journal entry focuses on addiction to alcohol and tobacco. All subjects had their breath, urine, and carbon monoxide levels monitored after the session, which included three doses of LSD, over the course of some weeks (varied based on the subject). Up to sixty seven percent of the subjects were found to have abstained from their respective addictions up to a year after their treatment. Reports from users said that they no longer had the need to consume something that currently controlled their life. As to why all of these studies seemed to be so effective is still a mystery being studied by theories have arisen, and are given later on in the journal. 

Under the influence of LSD, the central hub of the brain shuts down, forcing all of the other parts, like the senses (sight, touch, smell, etc.), to communicate with each other causing the entire body’s cells to become more sensitive to information. Without a balance of the main cognitive cells, excessive behaviors and regular behaviors are disrupted, and then returned to a state of equilibrium after the “trip”. The drug, in simple terms, resets the brain in a specific way, which could be the reason that people no longer saw the need to indulge in their addictions. Due to the drastic changes that could occur in a patient, during the treatment, “[hallucinogenic drugs] should not be prescribed for self-monitored use at home; therapy sessions require supervision. Patients must [also] be carefully screened for a history of mental illness, and receive a number of hours of psychotherapy prior to drug administration” (Nichols). This analyzation also shows that even current advocates of LSD, are not just junkies looking for another high. They are scientists who want to contribute to the bettering of society, even if that means taking up controversial topics.

More ideas that stemmed from people using LSD and other hallucinogens for medicine are those of “psycholitic therapy, and psychedelic therapy.” These are very similar to the above experiments, but they are for a broader spectrum of people. For those willing, therapy sessions with LSD would involve, “The activation of unconscious memories, emotional impulses and conﬂicts in a dreamlike experience happens through repeated administration of low to moderate doses of LSD or psilocybin. The activated material is then accessible for the therapeutic process” (Kirchner). Individuals with, not full on diseases but, problems that inhibit happiness or well-being could be helped with even the tiniest doses. 

Despite all of this fantastic sounding evidence the major fear and downside to LSD, is the infamous, “bad trip.” This can cause the person suffering to have nightmarish images, and do things that could be harmful to themselves or others. One such famous case is when a man, despite having no remaining psychological damage, during his first “trip” on LSD, a man with no previous major mental health problems preformed an amputation of his own testicles. This is not a regular occurrence, but, this file shows that there are dangers to using substances like LSD. This article also mentions that people with schizophrenia have been known to mutilate their genitals, which furthers their claim that the LSD is linked with bad mental disorders like schizophrenia. However, near the end of the paper, it is said that the man was under the influence of not only LSD, but alcohol, so his “trip” was the result of a mix of two dangerous substances, not just LSD. Furthermore, despite this man having significant physical problems after his trip, there were no mental problems that stemmed from this. Finally, his trip was after a lager dose of both alcohol and LSD then what is recommended for a regular illegal intake. This source can show that, yes people will abuse the substance if it becomes available for medical use, but this is the case with almost every legal medicine. Furthermore, it also shows that we know very little about the effects of the substance; its 99% theory at this point. The only way to understand is if experimentation is opened up, and becomes less restrictive.

The biggest group against drugs in general would be parents who do not want their children to become exposed or addicted to dangerous drugs. These fears are understandable and not without cause. Uncontrolled use coupled with other factors can be harmful to the psyche. There is a slim chance that a physical dependence or addiction will develop but, “hallucinogens can trigger acute psychoses in persons with inclinations towards psychotic disorders, due to, for example, their family history, an instable personality or organic damage. Therefore, contraindications are: schizophrenia, endogenous depression, borderline, and, cerebral-organic disorders” (Kirchner). However; incidents of major problems in healthy people taking average doses is still below five percent.

Those who are against LSD and other hallucinogens in the medical field have also been researching the effects of the drug. However; they are focusing on the effects of LSD on human chromosomes. In the last decade alone, many papers have been published that could link the use of LSD to “structural changes in the chromosomes, genetic mutations, disturbances of embryonic development, and malignant degeneration of cells” (Grof). The results still vary, but overall the only groups of subjects found to have breaks n chromosomal structure were illicit users of LSD, meaning that they documented use of the drug individually around 400 times, or infants whose mothers had used LSD during their pregnancies. Even then, the infants were found to have no physical or mental malformations or diseases at the time. While chromosomal damage is linked to LSD, at least in these earlier studies, it requires heavy use, or use at a young age to see detrimental results.

Psychedelic have shown that despite conventional thinking, they have a constant four main beneficial effects. They can treat disorders such as OCD, and depression by almost rewiring the brain. They have also shown that they can be used as tools of psychotherapy in patients with lethal conditions, and anxiety in others. Hallucinogens also have proven to exhibit mild pain relief in patients i.e., headaches. Finally, they can act as spiritual and creative stimulus for people struggling in life. These dimensions and aspects of LSD can also overlap, i.e. when spiritual experiences help patients get over addiction, or terminal patients learn to cope with the inevitable. Even so, the current amount of research is not enough. More is required to understand the complete overall effects, and furthermore, the personal side effects that may accompany the drug.

In conclusion, fear has controlled, not only the use, but the experimentation of hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD, since its effective ban. Extensive research has shown that in controlled environments, and within safe conditions, the drug has helped many people overcome mental issues and diseases. Furthermore; it is a drug which only seems to need to be ingested a few times in order to produce long term effects. Also, no long term effects have been found to be left over in patients who took participated in relatively current experiments. All of these findings are just the beginning. There is little experimentation happening now, and despite positive results, the FDA, and the DEA, are becoming even stricter on the drug. People will never know the true potential if they can’t experiment with the drug, and they are finding it very hard to. If there is a chance that LSD, or any other hallucinogen can better the world, then it should be taken. The future of medicine could be hidden in these once criminalized substances. All that’s left to do is to try and discover it. 
