The Decline in Drug Research | Breakthrough

The interesting thing about bing drugs is that the bands are supposed to reduce recreational use. We're not sure they do. They stop people perhaps talking about it, but they don't stop recreation.

But what they do do is they stop research. We know that someone who takes LSD has brain damage. He can become insane. From the discovery of LSD in 1943 to its being banned in 1967, there were 140 NIH grants in America to study LSD. 140 grants, 40,000 papers were published, 40,000 patients were studied.

Since the drug was made illegal in 1967, there has not been a single study of LSD in America. Russian roulette with a sugar cube. Now this stuff scares me to death. Why would you not want to study these drugs which produce profound changes in consciousness?

How can you study consciousness without perturbing it? The research opportunities lost by banning these drugs are vast because the therapeutic potential of these drugs, like cannabis and psychedelics, is enormous.

We have talked about the potential of psychedelics to treat addictions, depression, anxiety, etc. And of course, there's a whole range of other disorders that drugs like cannabis could be potentially useful for.

So the reality is, in most of the world, these drugs are still illegal, and almost no research has been done.