Scientific American reports on a hefty increase in LSD use in America. The article suggests it's becoming a popular form of "chemical escapism" in this era of existential perils.
Those results were published in the July issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The authors of the study suspect that many users may be self-medicating with the illegal substance to find relief from depression, anxiety and general stress over the state of the world.
“LSD is used primarily to escape. And given that the world’s on fire, people might be using it as a therapeutic mechanism,” says Andrew Yockey, a doctoral candidate in health education at the University of Cincinnati and lead author of the paper. “Now that COVID’s hit, I’d guess that use has probably tripled.”
...The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classifies LSD as a Schedule I drug, or one defined as having a serious risk of abuse and no accepted medical value. Significant research shows that the substance is not physically addictive, however, and that LSD overdoses are generally not considered life-threatening and subside within 72 hours. In some cases, people who accidentally overdose on the drug have even reported long-term improvements, according to a study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In 2015, for example, a 49-year old woman reportedly took 550 times the normal recreational dose of LSD because she mistook it for a line of cocaine. According to CNN, after being incapacitated for about a day, the woman said that chronic pain she had suffered in her feet and ankles, caused by Lyme disease, had significantly improved. “It just shows that LSD is not that harmful drug that everyone makes it out to be,” Yockey says. Of course, there are well-publicized exceptions: for example, the drug can worsen symptoms of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
I thought by now we'd all be dosing on Soma. Oh well.
11 comments:
As Timothy Leary recounted Marshall McLuhan singing, "Psychedelics hit the spot / Five hundred micrograms, that's a lot / Tune in, turn on, and drop out." Seems like good advise on these times.
Cap
I've come across a few opinion pieces suggesting this sort of thing may become much more commonplace as we confront the challenges now unfolding. Is it a way to cope with stress or a form of surrender? Our generations, Cap, don't have much experience of chaos and crises of any real magnitude.
Psychedelics and empathogens are following the cannabis blazed trail ... medical use redeeming the reputation followed by eventual decrim. or legalization.
Treating depression, PTSD and .... substance abuse! It turns out these are exit-drugs for alcohol and opioids.
I have no experience of anything beyond weed, NPoV. That said, should the government decriminalize such things, I would consider micro-dosing a bit of acid.
My sense is that we're about to get a thorough and rapid education in chaos from our friends south of the border, Mound. Now that the Supremes have cleared the roadblocks to the release of his tax records, the only way Trump avoids prosecution is by staying in power. US elections have always featured plenty of cheating, but I expect this fall's election will be like nothing we've ever seen. Trump is trailing badly in the polls and his party is looking at a wipeout. They have a massive incentive to cheat and to cheat big - your garden variety gerrymandering and vote suppression won't cut it. We're going to see the sort of stuff that Putin, Erdogan and Orban engage in. We've already seen unidentified federal forces attack peaceful BLM demonstrators in DC and are seeing them snatch people off the streets in Portland. As always, Trump is testing to see how far he can push.
In addition, Covid-19 cases will be totally out of control as Trump and GOP governors sit back and do nothing. As expanded unemployment benefits lapse, the economy's looking at another Great Depression. I doubt RBG has long to live and chances are good that Trump and McConnell get to railroad another Federalist onto the SCOTUS. We're going to have prime seats for a real shitshow.
Cap
Cap, during a conversation today with an old friend I asked if it was just me or if she had noticed that our fellow Canadians are already on edge about these November elections. She said that everyone she speaks with is nervous about this.
I too expect the Republicans to try anything they can conceive of to win this election. But what if they cheat on an unprecedented scale and it gives them the win? How will that impact their already deeply divided society? Will America fall apart? What could possibly hold it together?
Re: Cap's last comment, just in case you guys haven't heard of this:
"How Trump Stole 2020"
.. the Great Again American shit show is going to splatter all over us.. its quite possible it could shred us.. My recent reading includes an in depth via The Atlantic.. re Q Anon.. quite astonishing journalism - research. The bizarro vagaries or voids where gossip, religion, politics, ignorance, boredom, anger flow to run amok are stunning in scope.. ulp, did I forget to include military, vigilante, misguided, rabid ? Its 'down the rabbit hole' meets subterranean Animal Farm el twisto cray cray. Its one thing for a person to 'lose their shit'.. its another thing when political parties, governance and an entire population lose their shit in a pandemic.. oh oh, I left out racism.. and guns.. and th buffalo leap off a fiscal cliff.. oh uh, I forgo climate change.. !!
PS.. seems I can now comment on 'Blogger' based Indy Blogs as Salamander, again. My main writing devices are becoming unsupported.. ie won't recognize my Google account or iCloud.. reject my attempts via Anonymous etc.. I will retire with full honours, rock solid troopers that served me well..
I can advise (I am a certified 'reality advisor') re drug use. LSD microdosing is OK .. though I prefer my son's mild homegrown.. a puff or two.. I also prefer magic mushrooms in low dose, ideally within a National Park, early dusk frisbee, fab updrafts with some fine throwers of the disc.. and the BBQ coals gettin to the right stage for shrimp n steaks.. beware the bears.. a stouthearted fearless dog that can catch a frisbee is great.. and that can demo all leftovers in several gulps.. anyone who has attended the Banff firepits / foot of Cascade can attest. Long Beach near Tofino works as does PEI or Point Pelee.. I favor & savor the 'moveable feast' among friends
Thwap, thanks for the link. Palast has been off my radar for a while, too long. For the past year or two Chris Hedges has been writing about America being in a "pre-revolutionary state," akin to a pot of water simmering on a stove that you never really know when it will reach a rolling boil. At first I thought it was hyperbole but now it seems he could be right.
After 2016 how would blue America react to another election being stolen? They have a thoroughly gerrymandered Senate, a presidency that was manipulated, and a supreme court that has likewise been corrupted. What remains of their vaunted system of "checks and balances" and, when confidence in that constitutional guardrail falters, what is the United States of America except a massively armed banana republic?
Dark clouds on the horizon drawing nearer.
Sal, you're back! I was wondering where you had gone. The possibilities are endless in the current state of the land. Incarceration? Probably not. Covid? Who knows?
Yes, the United States is in a bad place, seemingly unable or unwilling to stop the slide. There are some who tell themselves that Biden would be a great purgative but that's a fantasy at best. The Republicans can always fall back into their fortress, the Senate, where they can always fill the moat, raise the drawbridge and drop the portcullis.
The checks and balances business has been exposed as meaningless without legislators faithful to the spirit of their Constitution. If you get a bunch like McConnell's willing to ignore the intent of their Constitution and their oath to uphold it, America can, as we have already witnessed, degrade into a Third World tyranny.
When Obama was first elected, McConnell openly boasted that the Republican-dominated Senate's only objective was to ensure that any initiative proposed by the White House would be defeated. Any measure, regardless of its merits or the needs of the country. And that is exactly what they did. It was a measure that approached sedition but, as that has never been tested in this context, was immune to sanction.
America has what could prove to be a terminal disease - the Culture War. Everything issue, including the most dire, potentially existential threats, become fodder for the Culture War. In this way, scientific emergencies such as climate breakdown and medical/public health crises such as the pandemic, are transformed into political challenges, the very place where effective responses are least likely to be found. The latest example is how CDC, the NIH, Dr. Fauci and others have been sidelined by the Trump/Pence pandemic roadshow. Once the executive branch took the reins chaos predictably ensued and tens of thousands of Americans died needlessly.
How does a state so inherently corrupted survive? Lincoln understood the scriptural admonition about a "house divided against itself." Never since the Civil War has the American house been so divided against itself to the point where governance itself has become largely impossible. The GOP today depends on the continued support of the deeply ignorant and angry, what I call the "Gullibillies." They've been promised much but received so very little. What happens should they realize they've been conned?
America can readily defend its borders against threats from beyond. It is the threats from within it cannot withstand.
BTW, welcome back Sal.
Maybe LSD use is on the rise because people are scared to death of opiates due to all the overdose deaths.
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