Dr. Keith: Take This Trip and Call Me in the Morning
Researchers at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and other academic medical centers scattered around the country are now testing psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, the active ingredient in “mushrooms,” to send terminal cancer patients on acid-like “trips.”
Some of the patients report the drugs open their minds to great insights that help them overcome the desperation and depression they had felt facing their own mortality. These insights, they say, are lasting ones that sustain an increased sense of well-being and self-possession for months or even years.
That sounds great. Why not break free from the reality of your unfortunate circumstances and see the vastness of the universe around you? Why not feel a connectedness with your fellow man so powerful and so far-reaching that it might reach even beyond death? Who would keep the doors of perception locked to those with so little time left on the planet? What harm could come from extending the medical use of marijuana in cancer victims to other illicit drugs?
The devil, however, is (as usual) in the details. The clinical trials of psilocybin and (in other medical centers) Ecstasy to treat psychological distress have at their core the theory that hallucinogens or other illicit substances have demonstrable and defensible benefits to users that outweigh the benefits to society of blanket criminalizing of such substances.
Certainly those battling cancer and facing death have unique needs and challenges. But what about those who are grieving the death of a child, or those experiencing severe stress from terrible accidents, or those with post traumatic stress disorder, or those with chronic depression? Don’t they deserve the same chance to shake off the shackles of their psyches and see what a “trip” might do for them? Why can’t they have some mushrooms or Ecstasy or LSD?
You can see the slippery slope ahead. It’s hard to tell young people, for example, that these drugs are paths away from the truth, not toward it, when doctors are touting their mind-expanding and healing properties. It’s hard to argue that they or anyone else should see their problems, including their anxiety and depression, as wake-up calls to understand and take charge and change their lives, when they could just take a pill—just once—and trip right out of their troubles.
Cancer is big trouble. Our mortality is something hard to “get our heads around.” It brings up significant and even tortuous questions about whether we have lived our lives as we might have wished to, whether we have expressed our love for those who deserved it, whether we’ve ever gotten the love we deserved ourselves.
I, for one, believe that the search for answers to such questions, even when painful, even when undertaken from a hospital bed, is a worthy and human one. And I worry about short-circuiting that process by taking a trip anywhere other than deeper into one’s heart, clear mind and relationship to the universe and God.
Tags: acid, cancer, clinical trials, Dr. Keith Ablow, drugs, Ecstasy, mushrooms, trips
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I have been fighting cancer for over 5 years and can not drink due to my medications. A supervised “trip” now and then would be a great relief in my stressful life.
What a difficult issue… I think we would all like ate least a momentary escape from what weighs us down, but I have to agree that the searching for the truth is what life is all about. My dear Mom struggled with Alzheimer’s disease for many years before she finally succumbed, but those years were some of the most enlightening for all of us. And the accidental death of my beloved nephew caused me to re-evaluate my own life and I subsequently decided to adopt a child. As hard as it is, I truly believe we are here to find our way… Thank you for your wise words.
So you are worried that, if a doctor prescribes morphine then all the kids will think that morphine is a fun drug to do? Therefore, we shouldn’t give morphine to patients? That is idiocy, and it assumes that all kids are 1) keeping track of new medicine and 2) complete idiots.
Just FYI, Doc, look up some research about these drugs like LSD, etc. You will find that, even if kids take them, they just aren’t that big a hazard. They aren’t vitamins that are good for kids, but — at the same time — they certainly don’t compare to the overall risks posed by alcohol or tobacco, either. Just in case you hadn’t heard, the most typical pattern of use is that people experiment with these drugs a few times and then never use them again. Very few people continue their use beyond a few simple experiments — and there is little to no real evidence that these experimenters suffer any harm.
You are obviously new to the subject of drugs and kids so you need to do some homework. Just FYI, historically speaking, the biggest single cause of drug epidemics among US children is anti-drug campaigns. You can find lots of info on that topic at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cumenu.htm If you haven’t read this book then you simply don’t know the subject. It is apparent that you haven’t read it.
Interesting how the “slippery slope” argument is always invoked when talking or writing about the use of drugs we deem to call illicit. Why isn’t this same argument used when talking about drugs in general? Your argument is short sighted and does not aswer the question if for the puposes stated, do these drugs help. Remember we give people powerful pain medications under certain circumstances and do not say they are therefore bad because outside of these circumstances they could and do have a deliterious effect. I for one was not convinced by this simplistic article.
ive done them all and mushrooms are a mind expanding tool that works for some ..not all
i did orange sunshine when i was 13
im 50 now and yes ive tripped a few times
i own my own home i have a good job and im not in debt
i think i see the world very clearly and i remember waking up the next day so long ago and seeing the world in a whole new light that has never changed
Having experimented with LSD and mushrooms years back I can say that the “enlightenment” is real and last for years.
Now I am dealing with a cancer so rare that there are only 44 documented cases in the world and I am on those heavy duty pain meds. I would love to be able to take a “trip” every once and a while to help my mental state.
Not only does the trip enlighten your mind, it also enlightens your spirit. You only have to know how to let go and enjoy what God made for such a purpose.
Abusing such drugs is rare because of the lasting effects. There is no need to get a “fix” right after a good trip. These drugs are not as addictive as beer or tobacco and do a lot less harm to the human body.
If we want to regulate drugs, then we should regulate ALL of them not just the ones that the Government can’t make a lot of money from the sale of.
If the Government would legalize Marijuana we would save hundreds of millions per year in fighting it and the taxes from the sales would be equal to alcohol and tobacco.
There are testimonies to a new mushroom product that is actually helping cancer patients. Those taking the product are not going on a trip, but ARE getting results.
Dr. Ablow’s views on the use of hallucinogens are well meaning, but short sighted. Hallucinogens can be beneficial to any adult when used responsibily and in a setting that engenders respect and safety. When the government makes such substances illegal they are denying its citizens the right to deep self-exploration. The biggest argument against hallucinogens is based on fear and ignorance. LSD, DMT, psyilocybin are powerful, and can be dangerous when improperly used. But these same drugs can be extraordinarly beneficial when used properly and with respect. Not just for cancer patients, but for any adult. To put the legal issue into perspective, alcohol is directly linked to nearly 500,000 deaths each year. Cigarettes, 300,000. Marijuana, which isn’t an hallucinogen, none. And this doesn’t include alcohol’s link to the domestic violence, divorce, loss of employment. Would there be tragedies if hallucinogens were made legal? Yes. Would they rise as high as those involving alcohol? Not likely, because after one or two uses, hallucinogens scare off those who aren’t mature enough to be using them. What this country should be doing, is opening up the use of LSD, DMT and the like to scientific research first, like the UCLA trial Dr Ablow criticizes, and allow scientists to collect data and then present their case to the citizenry. If there’s a true desire and need for these substances, the people’s voice will be heard. Likewise if there’s not. What we don’t need are “experts” like Dr. Ablow cloacking ill-considered and poorly documented opinions as fact.
what about the bad trip? huh? I say place your faith in god. Grow closer to having a relationship with him.
Clearly, The Studies show that “Mushrooms” a very hard on the kiddneys. I don’t think this is a good option! THC found in medical majiuna or marinol synthetic THC pills would be a superior option. If this does not work then add “Modafinal” (Provigil) and Prozac and “methamphendiate” (Ritlan) and Adderal (4-Amphetimine Coumpound Mix) using ultra low doses on this “Cancer” medication Stack of “Chemicals”.
I think there are much better medication options!
Dr. Keith, you’ve (quite predictably) missed the point. For an acclaimed psychiatrist supposedly concerned with the well-being of ALL individuals suffering from crippling depressions, it’s surprising that you would so callously swipe away any potential benefits of a plausible salvation for those individuals.
Your article makes it seem easy, as if the terminally ill participating in these studies are taking a short-cut towards inner peace. Needless to say, these individuals don’t have much time left: it is alleged “short-cut,” or no short-cut at all. Regardless, this medicine is not a “cure-all.” It provides the tools, but YOU must utilize those tools in an effective way to make changes in your life yourself. You acknowledge it’s a take-once deal: as Alan Watts wrote in 1962, “When you get the message, hang up the phone.” This is a manuscript for psychotherapy, not reckless partying.
You maintain that this is a “slippery slope” — if cancer patients can get in on this, why not everyone! Well, there are already studies underway exploring various psychological and physical disorders (PTSD, OCD, cluster headaches) demonstrating fantastic results. For instance, Michael Mithoefer’s PTSD study using MDMA — including Iraq War veterans as study participants — is just one of these studies proving (a) beneficial to the participants, and (b) not at all dangerous when used in a clinical setting.
This was the line in your article I found most disturbing: “I, for one, believe that the search for answers to such questions, even when painful, even when undertaken from a hospital bed, is a worthy and human one.” Well, Dr. Keith, apparently not all are as “worthy” or “human” as you. Many faced with the kind of “unfortunate circumstances,” as you insensitively put it might turn to destructive behaviors, i.e. alcohol and/or drug abuse, or even suicide, to quell the pain within them. Denying these individuals the opportunity to receive some clarity on their ever-shortening lives is neither worthy nor human, but incorrigible. Those that have participated in these studies will tell you there was no “short-circuiting” involved; rather, they were in fact able to transcend deep, deep into their own hearts, and no where else. And they’d likely add that their consciousnesses were never so clear, either.
Anything that eases the pain and suffering a person with cancer should be considered. This can only be beneficial to these people to help remove their minds from the disease they are fighting if its only for an hour a day.
The devil is in the details – what details? The details that say that hallucinogens like mushrooms and acid and entheogens like ecstasy are, when regular doses are taken, much less harmful than substances like alcohol (which is legal), tobacco (which is even more legal than alcohol), marijuana (which doesn’t have a single acute or long-term death associated with it), Adderall (which we give to plenty of kids under the age of 10 simply because they’re too finicky), and opiates (which we’ve been giving to suffers of pain for millennia)?
I think that there is a misconception being expressed here that psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD help one to “escape” their problems. Those who have taken psychedelics know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. The reason that psychedelics help some patients that are dealing with terminal illness is because it makes them confront their problems more directly. Problems that were previously pushed to the back of are psyche are brought out of the closet and dealt with consciously. That is why one dose of psychedelics can have such a long lasting positive effect.
Personally I think that it can benefit most people to have an annual psychic house cleaning where they take a deep thoughtful long range look at everything in their lives including the things that seem too difficult to deal with. What is wrong with that?