Hacker News Reader

Comment by gxon | Hacker News Reader

Certainly something that should be studied. Too bad the federal government in the US effectively banned any research into LSD for decades.

View on HN

The US maybe but there was research in London recently

>A group of psychologists at Goldsmiths, University of London, led by Devin Terhune, published the first placebo-controlled study on microdosing in late 2018

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-microdoses-of-...

So we should lift the ban on LSD research so that we can give people LSD and see if it increases their risk of stroke?

Correct; instead of armchair pharmacist-ing on some internet forum, we should collect actual data about its effects so that people can make more informed decisions about what/whether there are good uses for this chemical. Just like we do with other drugs.

There are more and more studies emerging (see https://maps.org/research/ and https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/09/04/hopkins-launches-psychedelic-...). That said, Erowid, and anecdotal reports, can be very valuable as well.

Yeah, I definitely don't disagree that informal reports are useful too. Was just reacting to the idea that it shouldn't be studied at all because of some rumors.

No, that's not what we do with other drugs. No one goes to an IRB with "We suspect this drug is bad for people, we should run a study to find out," and gets approval for that study.

If you wanted to perform an observational study on whether or not people already consuming LSD are at heightened risk of stroke, I highly doubt the federal ban would affect that.

There are lots of suspicions about how LSD might be good for people too; how do we figure out which suspicions are factual and not?

It doesn't, and I'm willing to donate my own body and mind to science to prove it if ever given the opportunity, and there are many others who feel the same way.

You won't have any trouble finding test subjects who are entirely cognizant of the dangers but place emphasis on pioneering the study of pyschochemistry.

As opposed to banning research on everything that hasn't already been researched because it could have some negative health effect we don't know about?

Yeah that's typical conservative mentality that is feeling based rather than reason based. It's a real shame how backward governments are in this respect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com