Researching the Medicinal Applications of Prohibited Substances

Some compelling studies have emerged over the past decade that have linked prohibited substances -- including MDMA (Ecstasy), and psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") -- with significant, and sometimes profound, medical applications.

Unfortunately for researchers, studies on these substances are few and far between. As banned substances under most international law, they are extremely difficult for experimenters to obtain, and researchers assume heightened liability risks to study illegal drugs.

Regardless of these impediments, illegal substances may have superior medical benefits to legal prescriptions, and in many cases prescription medications are posing much more danger to people than illegal drugs. According to the FDA, between January 1997 and June 2005, marijuana was cited as the primary cause of 0 deaths, while medications that are often prescribed instead of marijuana caused 10,008 deaths. Meanwhile, a 2007 study by the Florida Medical Examiner's Commission found prescription drugs -- especially drugs like Oxycotin, Vicodin, Valium, and Xanax -- were directly responsible for 300% more deaths in Florida than all illegal drugs combined that year.

So why should it be so much more difficult for researchers to study prohibited substances for medicinal purposes? The astonishing results of recent experiments involving MDMA and psilocybin only make this question even more urgent. Take the following examples...

-Psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer administered 2 MDMA therapy sessions to individuals who had suffered from serious post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for an average of 19 years. An astonishing 83% of the MDMA recipients showed significant improvement after 2 months from the last therapy session, compared to 25% for the placebo group. None of the subjects experienced serious side-effects or long-term problems from the experiment.

-MDMA is also showing promise as a treatment for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. Scientists have known for a few years that MDMA has cancer treating properties, but the dose necessary for it to be effective was so large it would kill the patient. As of this year, scientists have developed a modified version of MDMA that has none of the psycho-activity of ecstasy, but is 100x more effective at killing white blood cell cancers.

-A recent study out of Johns Hopkins University showed long-lasting personality change for the better in nearly 60 percent of subjects who were administered a single dose of the psychoactive component of "magic mushrooms," psilocybin. Researchers discovered significant increases in the personality trait "openness," which is related to qualities like compassion and patience. Both participants and their family and friends reported improvements in a participant's relationships, mood, and general well-being more than a year after the final psilocybin session.

So, can we conclude that some illegal drugs have significant medical uses? Generally, no, because there has not been enough research done to draw sound conclusions. But one conclusion is safe: decades of scientific research on these substances have already been lost, thanks to the US led War on Drugs.
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Come see Dr. Roberts, NIU professor emeritus of psychedelic studies, at the next Students for a Sensible Drug Policy meeting! Tuesday, 10/18 at 8:00pm in the HSC, Room 405.