I put the resource list first because this is such a controversial subject and most of what people have been told and perceive is...wrong. Read the quotes get a better understanding of the situation and see what you think, my comments are at the end of the references.
Oxford Journals - Social History of Medicine
http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/2/313
'Hitting Highs at Rock Bottom': LSD Treatment for Alcoholism, 1950-1970
Erika Dyck*
* Department of History and Classics/Division of Studies for Medical Education, 2–2 Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4, Canada. E-mail:
In the 1950s, researchers in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan began treating alcoholics with d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and achieved significant rates of recovery. Psychiatrists, including Humphry Osmond who coined the term ‘psychedelic’ while working in Saskatchewan, believed that the successful treatment of alcoholism with biochemical means would scientifically prove that the condition was a disease and not the result of a weak or immoral character.
ScienceBlog - Science News straight from the source
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/lsd-treatment-for-alcoholism-gets-new-look-11680.html
"The LSD somehow gave these people experiences that psychologically took them outside of themselves and allowed them to see their own unhealthy behavior more objectively, and then determine to change it," said Dyck, who read the researchers' published and private papers and recently interviewed some of the patients involved in the original studies--many of whom had not had a sip of alcohol since their single LSD experience 40 years earlier.
According to one study conducted in 1962, 65 per cent of the alcoholics in the experiment stopped drinking for at least a year-and-a-half (the duration of the study) after taking one dose of LSD. The controlled trial also concluded that less than 25 per cent of alcoholics quit drinking for the same period after receiving group therapy, and less than 12 per cent quit in response to traditional psychotherapy techniques commonly used at that time.
"The LSD experience appeared to allow the patients to go through a spiritual journey that ultimately empowered them to heal themselves, and that's really quite an amazing therapy regimen," Dyck said. "Even interviewing the patients 40 years after their experience, I was surprised at how loyal they were to the doctors who treated them, and how powerful they said the experience was for them--some even felt the experience saved their lives.
A few groups of researchers in the U.S., including a team at Harvard, have recently been granted permission to conduct experiments with LSD.
"We accept all sorts of drugs, but I think LSD's 'street' popularity ultimately led to its demise," Dyck said. "And that's too bad, because I think the researchers in Saskatchewan, among others, showed the drug is unique and has some intriguing properties that need to be explored further."
From University of Alberta
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/use-of-lsd-on-drug-addicts-called-experimental-and-inhumane-pr-60p5w8g6o.html
In early 1967, A Psychiatrist, Dr. Barker commenced a new series of experiments on the patients at Oak Ridge Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ontario. The LSD Experiments were conducted as part of the “Defense Disruption Therapy” program but only on a select group of patients within the program were subjected to the experiment.
The men who were chosen for the experiment were escorted to Oak Ridge’s F Ward where the LSD was administered. There, in the Capsule, or Box, or white room, a group of stripped naked men were confined to an area where they would be in various states of drug induced “trips” that would sometimes last a number of days.
Patients were given massive doses of LSD either orally or injected intramuscularly and at times administered in combination with Methedrine (a drug of the amphetamine group. Also known as methamphetamine, it is used as a stimulant).
The LSD Experiments have been documented to result in various serious and long lasting symptoms, including but not limited to suicide (attempted and realized), homicide, paranoid psychoses, severe depression, acute schizophrenic reactions, extreme anxiety, and “flashbacks”.
----- No wonder, you could do that and administer coffee and the average person would have nightmares. Giving anything in "massive doses" and sometimes with "methamphetamine" is a recipe for failure. "Here, let me tie you up naked and give you things your going to want to move around on, and let's see how you react", yeah right, that's standard governmental medical experimentation. They used to feed rats 40 pounds of saccharin a day, any wonder it caused cancer, drink 40 gallons of water a day and you will actually drown internally.
*I got the next one from Wikipedia, but I included the reference for it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide
Sewell, R. A.; Halpern, J. H.; Pope, H. G. Jr. (2006-06-27). "Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD". Neurology 66 (12): 1920-2. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000219761.05466.43
Summarized from "Research into psilocybin and LSD as cluster headache treatment" and the Clusterbusters website. Pages accessed 2007-01-31.
A dose-response study testing the effectiveness of both LSD and psilocybin was planned at McLean Hospital, although the current status of this project is unclear. A 2006 study by McLean researchers interviewed 53 cluster-headache sufferers who treated themselves with either LSD or psilocybin, finding that a majority of the users of either drug reported beneficial effects.[39] Unlike use of LSD or MDMA in psychotherapy, this research involves non-psychological effects and often sub-psychedelic dosages
Vanderbilt University
http://healthpsych.psy.vanderbilt.edu/MDMA_therapy.htm
Many psychiatrists and therapists believe that clinical use of MDMA would be extremely beneficial in enhancing communication between people. They also believe that it would be useful in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as anxiety, depression, and pain in cancer patients despite the possible side effects.
"Some have gone so far as to say that a single session with MDMA can achieve more than months of therapy for a few patients"(http://www.ephidrina.org/ecstasy/effects.html).
Many therapists believe that the properties of MDMA make it a better choice for use in psychotherapy than other psychoactive drugs such as LSD.
The Toronto Times
http://thetorontotimes.com/content/view/1278/68/
Legalizing use of opium for medicine a good idea:
The Senlis Council argues that efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation haven't worked. Worse still, it says, eradication programmes have driven poppy farmers into the arms of the Taleban. So why not cut the ground out from under the feet of the warlords and the Taleban, without depriving poor farmers of their livelihoods? Why not set up pilot projects where whole villages would be licensed to grow poppy legally? It's been done successfully in India, Thailand and Turkey, so why not Afghanistan?
Southern Afghanistan, where most of the opium poppy is grown, has suffered from a drought for several years. Poppy is a notably drought-resistant crop. Farmers would need expensive irrigation systems to switch to other crops, she says. "The idea that southern Afghanistan has an agricultural future is false," she argues. "By allowing pharmaceutical processing at village level, young men can be trained for light industrial work. This is important for the future of Afghanistan."
and now, My Position
Nixon started this "War on Drugs" and how many of you agree with anything Nixon said or did? Against the advice of the very Consuls he employed, he pushed through with his self-edifying agenda and cost this country its future. We have spent trillions of dollars on this war, we have incarcerated more people than the most tyrannical government in this war. We have created untold crime syndicates and empowered every single one of them as well as terrorists, with this war. This war has killed innocent civilians in many countries around the world by forces on both sides of the issue, and destabilized governments. Show me ONE positive thing that has come from the war on drugs.
I am not advocating making drugs legal as some of the references I have cited do, most notably, L.E.A.P., but using it conscientiously and in controlled environments as the medicine that it is, is just and right. Again, instead of militaristic policies and rigid law enforcement, let's use education to stem the tied of abuse. Lets have better controls over access and accountability. I hate when people justify denying people an effective treatment just because they can't be bothered to figure out a way that it won't be misused.
I have a definite problem with Cocaine, Heroin, methamphetamine, and anything that you inject intravenously. I have seen too many people who's lives that were destroyed by these substances. However, if our present course is not effective, even after all the cost and loss of freedom and life, then we must as a people, come up with a better plan.
I do not have a true definitive answer, but I am studying the situation and will try to find more effective ways to "use" and not "abuse" the medical properties of all substances.
| 
