Hallucinogenics and Addiction

Some of these things are like recordings of recordings -- far removed from the primary source. But the point is to get it out there, no? So check out neurophilosophy for an overview on the use of psychedelic drugs for alcoholism treatment (and lots of other interesting stuff). The post is based on a paper in the current issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

In a nutshell ... a small group of Canadian scientists working in the early 1950s found LSD to be effective in treating alcoholism; they claimed it produced unprecedented rates of recovery (approximately 50 percent). As hallucinogenic drugs became increasingly associated with the counterculture, however, their findings were largely ignored. Now -- perhaps because there's more of a profit to be made -- there is renewed interest in the medical community on the potential use of hallucinogenics for drug and alcohol addiction.