# Will other recreational drugs be medicalized anytime soon **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 18, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930 "2014-11-18T02:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/1 "2014-11-18T02:39:55Z")
LSD, mushrooms, MDMA, DMT, ibogaine, etc. all have benefits for a variety of addictions and psychological problems. LSD could treat cluster headaches. etc. With the war on drugs losing popularity, one would hope, are any states making serious inroads on creating more medical opportunities for other illegal drugs? ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/2 "2014-11-18T11:28:03Z")
Some of these started as medical drugs but were found to be too dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/3 "2014-11-18T12:20:12Z")
I could see shrooms becoming legal but nothing else. (Like 50 years from now.) If memory serves correctly, it’s damn near impossible to OD on shrooms. And unlike LSD, it’s effects only last for four hours or so. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/4 "2014-11-18T13:20:47Z")
Isn’t cocaine used in ocular surgery? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/5 "2014-11-18T13:52:13Z")
Isn’t morphine basically heroin? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/6 "2014-11-18T14:22:15Z")
I recall reading that MDMA had promise treating depression, but when I Google it I mostly get results about it causing depression. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/7 "2014-11-18T16:47:03Z")
I’m lazy, so I’ll just quote myself from an earlier thread: > [@Drug legalization: are some worse than others?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-legalization-are-some-worse-than-others/702316/22): > > LSD has been found to be physiologically harmless: Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris from the Centre For Neuropsychopharmacology at London’s Imperial College has reached the conclusion that it has “[a very favourable physiological safety profile](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/dr-robin-carhartharris-is-the-first-scientist-in-over-40-years-to-test-lsd-on-humans--and-youre-next-9667532.html)” - i.e., that it is “non-toxic.” > > What’s more, it may even have some therapeutic potential. Earlier this year, _The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease_ [“published results from the first study of LSD’s therapeutic potential in humans to appear in more than four decades.”](http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/03/04/first-study-of-lsds-psychotherapeutic-benefits-in-four-decades-breaks-research-taboo/) (Full thing [here](http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Documents/90000000.0-00001.pdf) - warning: PDF.) It sounds quite promising: > > > [@](#): > > > > “The study was a success in the sense that we did not have any noteworthy adverse effects,” [Swiss psychiatrist Peter] Gasser says. “All participants reported a personal benefit from the treatment, and the effects were stable over time.” > > And [LSD may also help against cluster headaches](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16801660), so that’s nice - not to mention make people enjoy themselves without hurting themselves or others, which is nice, too. > > The research is ongoing, so perhaps it’s too early to tell either way. But two or five or ten years from now, I think a very good case could be made for LSD at least losing its classification as a “Schedule I” drug - or perhaps being legalised outright. Also: > [@Timothy Leary : How did the authorities get away with such blatant abuses?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/timothy-leary-how-did-the-authorities-get-away-with-such-blatant-abuses/702269/17): > > Research has been made into the subject of using LSD to combat alcoholism ([alas, .pdf behind paywall](http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/08/0269881112439253.full.pdf+html)). Looks fairly promising, according to pop sci write-ups such as [this one](http://www.bbc.com/news/health-17297714). I don’t know about “any states making serious inroads on creating more medical opportunities,” but I suppose it’s possible, a few years down the line. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/8 "2014-11-18T17:01:28Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I recall reading that MDMA had promise treating depression, but when I Google it I mostly get results about it causing depression. Don’t know about depression itself, but [this article](http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-heretic) mentions - in passing - that… > [@](#): > > In the summer of 2011, 16 vets who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD began receiving a combination of talk therapy and MDMA (pure Ecstasy). The fellow doesn’t provide a link, but it appears that the _Journal of Psychopharmacology_ has published at least two similar studies: [This one](http://mdmaptsd.org/images/research/mithoefer_etal_2011_jpsychopharm_mdmaptsdpilotstudy.pdf) (warning: .pdf), followed by [this one](http://mdmaptsd.org/images/research/mithoefer_etal_2012_ltfu.pdf) (warning: .pdf). Going by the introductions and the introductions alone - I stress that I haven’t read either study in its entirety - the results seem promising enough: > [@](#): > > When we published the first randomized controlled trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, our results demonstrated that there were positive effects on PTSD symptom severity by the end of the treatment program. ---
**Author:** ![epolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@epolo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epolo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/9 "2014-11-18T17:12:25Z")
Cui bono? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/10 "2014-11-18T17:21:05Z")
Despite any science on the subject the public isn’t receptive to medicalizing most otherwise illegal drugs currently. The success of legalized medical and recreational marijuana might increase efforts in some cases, but the marijuana fight has gone on for decades and there is still plenty of controversy over it’s use. Perhaps more legal exceptions to study other drugs will begin, but changing laws and public perception is a slow process. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930/11 "2014-11-18T17:28:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Isn’t morphine basically heroin? Like a Model T is basically a Mustang…