Hallucinogens

This paper will illustrate several aspects of how drugs affect our lives. Addiction philosophies including the psychology and physiology will be explained in an attempt to describe how drugs affect our bodies both physically and mentally. Secondly, different drug categories types will be covered including: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, hallucinogens, and cannabis. Each of these categories has different addiction potentials and effect levels including withdrawal symptoms. Finally, the abuse of prescription drugs and their effects will be discussed.

Peter Gasser, tested the extent to which the psychedelic drug, LSD, could be beneficial in psychotherapy as a “complement to talk therapy,” (The New York Times). The trial featured a sample size of only twelve patients, making it too small to be conclusive. However, it did open the door to the concept of using the drug for therapeutic purposes. Most of the patients who participated in the trial “had terminal cancer, and several died within a year after the trial,” (The New York Times). On the bright side, they were privileged enough to have the opportunity to experience a “mental adventure that appeared to have eased the existential gloom of their last days,” (The New York Times). The effects of the drug last up to 10 hours, after which the user generally falls asleep. Therapy sessions are held in a controlled environment with a psychiatrist present in order to assist the patients out with any level of distress that they may experience and to talk them through their thoughts and emotions and help them figure out their source. The experimenter, Dr. Peter Gasser, advised the test subjects that they may experience some level of mental and emotional upset, but reassured them with remarks such as “I can’t guarantee you won’t have intense distress, but I can tell you that it will pass,” (The New York Times). The drug also causes the subjects to talk excessively and to open up in a way that is extremely cathartic,

Mescaline is known to modulate neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine within the brain, which both play essential roles in the regulation of pleasure (Hopkins, R, 2011, para. 7). This can be beneficial for individuals suffering from altered or injured serotonin systems in need of medical treatment. Mescaline can produce varying perceptual, cognitive, and emotional experiences, and was used by Aztecs and Native American groups for highly religious ceremonies, communication with spirits, mystical effects, and most often, illnesses (CESAR,

Intro: Psilocybin mushrooms are a Schedule 1 drug which means they have high potential for abuse and are not recognized for medicinal use, yet they are not addictive and overdosing directly from the drug is very rare.

It has been shown that individuals turn to drugs that elicit a mood or level of arousal consistent with their mode of dealing with stress. Those who deal with stress by confrontation choose drug stimulants. Those who withdrawal from stress chooses opiate drugs. Others who deal with stress through activities related to imagery or fantasy turn to hallucinogens. These differences between behavior and drug preference are thought to be biochemically driven.

While psychedelics can create a profound sense of distortion from reality urging the importance of putting yourself in a the right setting with the right people, there is little evidence that links psychedelics to toxic effects on the brain or body. So much so that researchers from the EmmaSofia organization in Oslo Norway claim that psychedelics are no more dangerous than common activities including playing soccer or riding a bike (Krebs, 2015). Psychedelic substances are known for altering your perception of reality, which could be dangerous if you’re somewhere that presents physical risks, but research suggests the psychedelics themselves do no damage physically. Not only are the psychedelics safe but they also provide therapeutic

A new wave study on hallucinogens, and other mind-altering substances, was organized to address whether these

Since the 20th century, many medical professionals and researchers have been attempting to utilize psychedelic drugs in psychological illnesses treatments. In many testing cases, these psychedelic drugs were having hallucination effects on the patients. For examples, psychedelic drugs such as LSD and methoxamine are capable of changing a person’s moods, feelings, or even behaviors in either positive or negative ways. However, after decades of restriction on psychedelic drugs in 1960s, hallucinogens have been researched constantly in order to find a proper ways to utilize them in medicine. In other words, medical experts have been testing these drugs occasionally on patients, raising questions about medical ethics as a result. For instance, various patients reported to experience drug addiction, violent or suicidal thoughts, and physical syndromes such as coma, seizures, or loss of muscular coordination. Therefore, not only the testing of psychedelic drugs causes ethical debates, but the use of these drugs in general also questions whether they should be used in medicine at all.

There are many substances in this world that are used and abused in order to achieve pleasing psychoactive effects. Two substances of such nature that are abused in today’s society are alcohol and LSD. Alcohol is a liquid that is derived from the fermentation of grains and/or fruit (7). LSD is an ingestible form of lysergic acid which is derived from a fungus called ergot. Both of these drugs are drastically different with minimal similarities, primarily because alcohol is classified as a depressant and LSD is classified as a hallucinogen. Even though these drugs differ in many ways, they are commonly used in unison.

The researchers conducted their study at the alcoholic unit of the New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute at Princeton, New Jersey. Participants were recruited by offering patients admitted to the institute the opportunity to take part in the experimental LSD program. A total of 28 alcoholics were admitted to the program, and their results were compared to that of a group of 34 alcoholics who took part in a standard comparison program provided by the Alcoholic Unit. Details about the patients were recorded such as their ethnic background, age, and marital status. Subjects were placed into groups of four. The first week was structured as an orientation week, and at the end of the week, two of the members were randomly chosen to be administered

Throughout the history of the human species, we have been always wanted to know three basic questions: why we are here, where did we come from, and where do we go after this life? Whether we were created from an omnipotent being as in many religions, we happened by chance and made it to where we are through evolution, or maybe even something else. Whatever the case may be, humans have always been curious and wondered about our existence and consciousness. Along with these age old questions, also came the use of psychoactive drugs and other mind altering substances. In order to try to understand these questions, humans have experimented with drugs that alter their state of consciousness.

“Between the second World War, when Dr. Albert Hofmann accidentally got high with his invention of LSD, and in the late ’60s there were thousands of studies conducted by medical and psychiatric researchers looking into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs” (Antonia). Hofmann’s experiments had opened the minds of many scientists, making them curious as to what LSD could potentially have in store for the future of medicine. “The extraordinary mental effects of LSD described in 1943 by Hofmann prompted hope in the following two decades that a powerful therapeutic tool was at

Drugs have been around for a very long time. They are used for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include relaxation, socialization, curiosity, stress relief, or a form of escapism. However, most people don’t know the threats and danger that it can cause to the body. In this paper, we are going to examine the changes that happen inside the brain due to the effects of different drugs. We will look closely at how drugs such as hallucinogens, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, and cannabis affect an individual psychologically. I will explain the origin of the drugs, how a person feels while on the drug, how the drugs

An individual’s behavior and emotion becomes chemically altered often resulting in dependency, aggression, onset of diseases and poor judgement. This poses a dangerous threat to the neurotransmitters since they have multiple jobs in different parts of the brain. Drugs of abuse are able to exert influence over the brain reward pathway either by directly influencing the action of dopamine within the system, or by altering the activity of other neurotransmitters that exert a modulatory influence over this pathway. These drugs are often powerful and have been known to trigger schizophrenic behavior and can also cause a person to cease breathing, for example hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin are able to artificially stimulate the serotonin receptor (Sapolsky, 2005).

It is no secret that drug use has the ability to completely alter a person’s state of consciousness, whether it be through extreme euphoria, increased hyperactivity, pain relief or psychedelic hallucinations. Although many drugs are used for medical purposes, the global issue of recreational drug use is now being fronted as an extremely serious matter that is steadily on the uprise. Recreational drug use is often associated with negativity, addiction and as having serious physical and mental repercussions. One of the few class of drugs that is often associated with both positive and negative connotations are hallucinogens, otherwise known as “psychedelics”, which have powerful altering effects on ones sense of perception, brain function