Into The Research Trip Op-Ed

Into the Research Trip by Madeline Martinez
In 1966, psychedelic drug advocate and former Harvard professor Timothy Leary appeared on
the Merv Griffin Show. When asked how many times he had taken lysergic acid diethylamide
(LSD), he answered 311; the audience gasped.
Timothy Leary was dismissed from Harvard for experimenting with hallucinogens on
undergraduates. Im in the unfortunate situation of being about 20 years ahead of my time, he
said some 50-years ago (Timothy Leary Organization, n.d.). Before much longer, lysergic acid
diethylamide was classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no known medical use.
Stanislav Grof was one of the foremost researchers on the therapeutic applications of lysergic
acid diethylamide in the 1950s and 60s. He studied the effect of psychedelics on mental
disorders, including addiction.
It was quite extraordinary, Stanislav Grof told National Public Radios Arun Rath. He said
lysergic acid diethylamide appeared to accelerate treatment of mental illness exponentially. "This
was a tremendous deepening and acceleration of the psychotherapeutic process, and compared
with the therapy in general, which mostly focuses on suppression of symptoms, here we had
something that could actually get to the core of the problems." But the omnipresent appearance
of LSD retained that it was not an acceptable treatment, and the 1970 organization of LSD and
other hallucinogenic substances was a tremendous blow to research. Grof even abandoned his
experiments on alcoholism (Stanislav and Christina Grof Foundation, 2014).
No investigators were willing to jump through the hoops needed to study stigmatized drugs
during the Just Say No campaigns of the 1980s, but by the 90s attitudes had begun to shift.
Along with movements such as grunge, the rave scene, and hip hop, came a suitable spell of
studying psychedelic drugs. By the 2000s, a small but growing research community was picking
up where Stanislav Grof and others had left off. One capacity that presented potential was using
hallucinogens to ease anxiety and depression in patients with cancer, like Erica Rex.
"I was diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 2, in 2009," Erica Rex says. "Even if people are happy
to spout statistics at you about your chances of survival, that's not what happens in emotional or
human terms. I went through the treatment, and then there are some drugs that have terrible side
effects."
These side effects can involve depression, which Erica Rex experienced. She claimed to have
developed an obsession with the possibility of her death, and it was crippling. Rex then found out
she might qualify for a study on the experimental drug psilocybin, an active compound in
psychedelic mushrooms. Following a sequence of lab tests, an extremely intense psychological
workup, and days exhausted at the hospital, she was deemed eligible for the study. Rex was
prearranged two doses of the hallucinogen in two separate sessions, with trained guides sitting
with her as the drugstaken in the form of a small, purple pilltook effect.
The session began in a windowless room, Erica Rex wearing an eye shadow and headphones to
listen to music. She acknowledged moments of laughter, memories of the past and emotional
highs and lows. After it ended, Rex articulates she spent time writing everything that she
remembered. In the end, she said it helped her depression (Rex, 2012). "I'm much better," she
says. "I am able to plan; I don't sit around obsessing about what the future may hold nearly as
much."
Nonetheless, Charles Grob of the University of California, Los Angelesone of the few
researchers actually studying medical uses of psychedelic drugswarns there are reasons to be
cautious when taking psychedelic drugs. He says researchers demonstrate safety in the lab, but
the real risks are in the outside world, in recreational settings (Lopez, 2015). Outside the
laboratory, Grob says, "nave individuals who really don't know what they're getting into take it
under adverse conditions [and] often mix it with alcohol or other drugs. That's where you have
the serious potential for adverse outcome."
Because of these particular instances, hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide and
psilocybin have been some of the most difficult substances to ever research, despite their proven
benefits. While many fear entheogens due to their rumored lasting psychological effects, the
physical ones often prove much more scarce than that of side effects provided by traditional
treatments.
Along with facing a tougher approval process, psychedelic drug research does not attract much
funding. National funding sources, like the National Institutes of Health, are not receptive at all.
Charles Grob claims the majority of his support up to this point has come from private sources,
which is not easy in such a tough economy. "Hopefully that will change and hopefully in the near
future there may be some opportunity to see some progress in that arena," he states.
Despite these challenges, researches are pressing on in the study of psychedelic in the name of
science. Many are applying this knowledge in the progress of health, sadly being stifled on the
brink of greatness by politics. "I believe we are on the threshold of some very exciting
discoveries," Grob says, "that the health field can only benefit from."
References
Lopez, G. (2015, February 25). The risks of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs, explained.
Retrieved May 9, 2016, from http://www.vox.com/2015/2/25/8104917/drug-dangersmarijuana-alcohol
NPR Staff. (2014, March 9). The '60s Are Gone, But Psychedelic Research Trip Continues.
Retrieved May 9, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/2014/03/09/288285764/the-60s-aregone-but-psychedelic-research-trip-continues
Rex, E. (2012, October 15). Magic mushrooms and cancer: My mystery cure? Retrieved May 9,
2016, from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/magicmushrooms-and-cancer-my-magical-mystery-cure-8212368.html
Stanislav and Christina Grof Foundation. (2014, October 16). Dr. Stanislav Grof. Retrieved May
9, 2016, from http://www.stanislavgrof.com/
Timothy Leary Organization. (n.d.). Timothy Leary's Trip Through Time. Retrieved May 9,
2016, from http://www.timothyleary.org/#1

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Into the Research Trip by Madeline Martinez

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