Magic mushrooms and LSD are commonly classified as psychedelic “party drugs.”
However, experts are now claiming that both LSD and magic mushrooms are much less harmful than previously claimed and should be reclassified in order to allow scientists to research their potential medical use, according to the U.K. publication The Independent.
Larger trials to research the medical use of LSD and magic mushrooms are reportedly “almost impossible” because of the “practical, financial and bureaucratic obstacles” due to the drugs’ legal status, according to psychiatrist Dr. James Rucker.
Both drugs were “extensively used and researched in clinical psychiatry” before being prohibited in 1967, according to the U.K. news outlet The Daily Mail.
Previous studies that were conducted before the prohibition reportedly suggested that LSD and magic mushrooms provided a “beneficial change in many psychiatric disorders.”
Currently, psychedelic drugs reportedly remain more legally restricted than heroin and cocaine, despite the lack of reasoning for this.
“No evidence indicates that psychedelic drugs are habit forming, little evidence indicates that they are harmful in controlled settings, and much historical evidence shows that they could have use in common psychiatric disorders,” wrote Rucker.
“[Psychedelics have] clinical efficacy in anxiety associated with advanced cancer, obsessive compulsive disorder, tobacco and alcohol addiction and cluster headaches.”
A former chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Professor David Nutt, had reportedly argued that LSD and ecstasy are less harmful than alcohol. He is now reportedly conducting research into psychedelics’ effects on the brain.
Despite the argument of experts, not everyone is on board with reclassifying psychedelic drugs.
“Psychedelic drugs destroy lives, cause misery to families and communities and this Government has no intention of decriminizaling them,” stated Minister for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Victims Mike Penning.
