# Will other recreational drugs be medicalized anytime soon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-other-recreational-drugs-be-medicalized-anytime-soon/704930>\
**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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**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")

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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.

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