Legalize psychedelics?
Psychedelics are safe for the psyche
Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
Neither LSD, nor "magic" psilocybin mushrooms, nor mescaline cacti increase the likelihood of mental illness in those who use them. This conclusion was reached by experts from the Norwegian University of Natural and Technical Sciences. Teri Krebs and Paul-Orjan Johanssen undertook a truly huge study involving 130 thousand people, of whom 22 thousand have tried this or that psychedelic drug at least once.
Scientists used data from a survey conducted in Norway in 2001-2004. People reported whether they had used drugs, whether they had mental problems and whether they had to resort to medical care because of this. The authors of the work, by the way, focused not on specific ailments, but on general symptoms that occur with a variety of disorders and may indicate an incipient disease: constant stress, constant anxiety, shattered mood, psychotic traits in behavior, etc.
So, not a single psychedelic was associated with any of these symptoms. The researchers tried to evaluate the effect of drugs in different ways: for example, those who "used" systematically all their lives were considered separately from the experimental subjects who tried, say, for the first time a year ago. Still, it was not possible to find a statistically reliable connection between mental anomalies and psychedelics.
At the same time, for example, those who "dabbled" with psilocybin or mescaline all their lives, and those who tried LSD a year ago, suffered less from severe stress. If a person has been using LSD all his life, then he generally rarely sought psychiatric help.
However, the researchers themselves emphasize, these data do not allow us to say what is the reason for the lack of connection between psychedelics and mental disorders. In the end, it cannot be ruled out that there really is a negative effect from LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, etc., but it is compensated by some positive effects. In a mass statistical study, it is impossible to distinguish one from the other: for five people with negative effects, there may be, for example, six or seven people with positive effects.
However, recent clinical studies have not been able to confirm the alleged harm from psychedelic drugs, so the statistics given, it turns out, does not contradict anything.
What it definitely contradicts, however, is the general traditional view of any narcotic substance. It should be noted here that psychedelics do not cause addiction, and this distinguishes them not only from heroin, cocaine and other opiate rubbish, but also from such well-known drugs as alcohol and nicotine. In addition, psychedelics do not cause damage to the brain – again, unlike... A well-known prejudice against them arose when they were just beginning to be studied and when a general rule was hastened to be made out of several dubious episodes with their use. Nevertheless, the actual universal rule says that the use of psychedelic drugs does not cause any harm to either the individual himself or his social environment (unlike, recall, heroin and vodka).
As for the positive aspects of the use of "magic mushrooms" and other things, such a conversation will already be on the verge of propaganda, and therefore we will postpone it until better times.
The results of the study are published in the journal PLoS ONE – Psychedelics and Mental Health: A Population Study.
Prepared based on the materials of the Norwegian University of Natural and Technical Sciences:
LSD and other psychedelics not linked with mental health problems.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru21.08.2013