Can you be a hippie without doing drugs

Now that we are familiar with the abridged history of LSD and how cultural attitudes influenced its criminalization, I will now analyze a few of the objections to LSD to determine the severity and validity of each and whether they warrant prohibition of the drug. Undeniably LSD would not work for every patient, and many would experience side effects. These are inherent qualities of any drug, whether prescription, over the counter or illicit.

Thus I will refrain from going into detail on those factors and focus on other concerns of safety and efficacy. The Schedule I definition states that LSD has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse; I will now analyze both of those criteria, then further analyze other significant objections to the clinical use and research of LSD.

First, I will investigate the claim that LSD has a high potential for abuse. Certain proteins in the human brain known as trace amine-associated receptors TAARs facilitate the expression of dopamine related to reward-motivated behavior and serotonin related to feelings of happiness.

LSD could be essential in treating people with low dopamine and serotonin levels--which translates to depression and addiction--by activating the TAARs which produce those neurotransmitters. The implications of LSD being non-addictive go beyond disproving its Schedule I status; this discovery could be a breakthrough in reducing drug dependency and addiction fostered by overprescription and the addictive nature of conventional medications like antidepressants and opioids.

I will now discuss the second component, which is that LSD has no accepted medical use. Despite the cultural stigma it carries, LSD was, and still is, accepted by many psychiatrists and researchers as having immense potential to treat alcoholism, anxiety, and depression.

Because of its illegal status and insufficient funding for research, LSD cannot be implemented as a treatment and is rarely tested on humans, so although there are various studies from the fifties and sixties, there is limited research from the last decade. Here, I will review a few recent clinical studies which used LSD in psychotherapy to evaluate its efficacy in a modern application. One of the studies they discuss entailed dying cancer patients undergoing LSD therapy for anxiety and depression.

It found that two-thirds of these patients had improved mood and reduced anxiety and fear Nichols Nine of the 12 participants reported a significant reduction in anxiety as much as 12 months later Nichols The article also reviews some earlier studies which show significant decreases in alcohol misuse and heroin use for at least one month post-LSD treatment Nichols While funding for this type of research is scarce and the taboo nature of psychedelics prevents these studies from being conducted more frequently, the evidence we have shows promising results.

Besides increasingly proving its efficacy in hundreds more studies than the ones I have provided, LSD has also proven to be safe. In comparison to other prescription drugs, these side effects are exceedingly ordinary. Likewise, of the various studies analyzed by Reiche from , none reported serious medical complications or need for medical intervention regarding LSD. Reiche also touches on the long-term effects of the studies, the psychological aspect being the most significant. HPPD is often the most concerning of the long-term effects to physicians.

The syndrome consists of recurring experiences of the perceptual features associated with a psychedelic trip like geometric hallucinations or intensified colors.

The prevalence of HPPD is considered low Orsolini but a large concern is the lack of knowledge about it, and especially how it relates to pre-existing conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Reiche acknowledges problems with many of the studies, especially earlier ones, like lack of psychological preparation for taking LSD, which I will now elaborate on, as this element of unpredictability has been a significant objection to the clinical use of LSD.

Some scholars, such as Dr. For example, subjects who are in a more aesthetically pleasing room, rather than a metallic, clinical-looking room, and subjects who have access to music or art supplies are more likely to have positive experiences.

Set, meaning the mindset of the subject before taking LSD, acts as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, the subjects who were told beforehand that they would be in a psychotic or schizophrenic-like state tended to be more paranoid and anxious while on LSD. But he felt fine the next day. THC levels in some varieties of skunk can be as high as 46 per cent.

Female cannabis plants are grown without a male so that the plant produces more of the crystal-coated filaments that cause the high.

This causes a series of commands to be relayed to the central nervous system and the body: lowering body temperature, impairing memory and movement control and releasing dopamine to the brain. These include fits of laughter, and enhanced audio and visual sensation. Ally Carnwath. Halfway down south London's Landor Road - notorious in recent years for teen shootings and police raids - sits Lambeth Hospital. Dr Zerrin Atakan worked as a consultant psychiatrist at the intensive care unit here for 13 years.

Throughout the Eighties and Nineties patients came and went and came again through Lambeth Hospital's mental health wards. To end up in Atakan's intensive care ward they would be in an extreme state, and were often violent. Atakan began to observe that most of them smoked cannabis.

Psychiatric intensive care wards are locked wards but, if a patient's mental state has stabilised, after a few weeks they are allowed out to shop for a newspaper, to see how things are going. Two in every frequent cannabis users will suffer schizophrenia. To her amazement Atakan found that there were hardly any studies about the links between psychosis and cannabis use. It took her and collaborator Professor Philip McGuire 15 years to get funding and cut through the red tape to run a study.

One test Atakan ran was a response inhibition task to measure how well people stop themselves from doing something. When people stop themselves the cortex area of the brain fires up, and in people with schizophrenia, cortex function is reduced. This 'attenuation' of activity is linked with paranoia or suspiciousness.

In other words we are hardwired to feel paranoid or suspicious, and our cortex has to work to keep these feelings in check. A group of volunteers were shown a series of images of arrows. They were asked to press a button if the arrows were horizontal - whether they pointed left or right - but to stop themselves if the arrows were at an oblique angle.

The group undertook the test twice, once following an oral dose of THC and the second time having been given a placebo. In other words, THC made them bad at stopping themselves. Atakan's team also measured the group's psychotic state - their anxiety levels, sense of alienation, intoxication and general wellbeing. The psychotic symptoms appeared more pronounced the less well the subjects were able to 'inhibit' themselves, in line with THC consumption.

A current Institute of Psychiatry study has healthy adults injected intravenously with THC and observed. It has found that THC introduces psychotic symptoms.

Paranoia is increased, as is misinterpreting the environment. Reasoning is impaired and there is a disconnection between thinking about moving and moving, and thinking about speaking and speaking. Especially in genetic terms. Some people think there may be a gene or combination of genes that makes you vulnerable. I think there may be protective genes that stop certain people becoming too psychotic. Carl works in the film industry.

He is in his early thirties and has been a chronic cannabis smoker since he was About five years ago he 'found himself' becoming a dealer. The more I smoked and gave to my friends, the more it made sense to buy a nine bar and sit on it for a month or so. I make enough to fund my own use. Suppliers sell skunk in 6kg loads which are split into 1kg bricks, then quartered into 'nine bars', which then provide nine single-ounce bags which are then split into eighths.

The drug often changes hands at each stage. The buzzer sounds and Carl lets in two of his friends, or friends of friends - skinny, pale men in their late twenties. Pete, a heavily side-whiskered musician, gets rolling: crumbling the dried skunk buds on to a net of three cigarette papers. There is no typical 'smoke-up' or 'blaze' because there is no typical cannabis smoker.

Cannabis is Britain's second favourite intoxicant after alcohol. The counter-culture of the 's. They believe in equality, love, and peace. They are anit-war and pro-choice. These people are responsible for making the best music known to man. They also popularized recreational drug use.

Fuck the draft , man! But none of that really matters now because the new wave of faux-hippies has completely trampled out any past achievements and set the whole movement back at least four-hundred years. Your modern day hippie is a white, middle-to-upper-middle class year old college student.

When he runs out of pretentious, grandiose questions to pose, he will proceed to make Noam Chomsky look like Rush Limbaugh with his political rhetoric.

These three words will most likely even be used in the same sentence to describe Phish to someone. Yoga and meditation can be successful ways to achieve the same thing, but they take years of dedicated practice to reach their goals.

Certain drugs can have an even more dramatic effect in one day. The downside is that they wear off and you come down! Yoga and meditation can keep you naturally high for the rest of your life if you apply yourself. And since there is no outside substance involved there is no chance of a bad trip.

To each his own method. I respect those who look before they leap!