Is Medical LSD The New Medical Cannabis?
Almost every Schedule I controlled substance was once a legitimate pharmaceutical drug, a popular social lubricant, or both before the Controlled Substances Act came to town in 1970. In the plants’ native ranges, people have been smoking cannabis and chewing khat for centuries, if not for millennia. Even before heroin gave midcentury jazz its otherworldliness, people would go to the local pharmacy and buy opium over the counter, using it to treat everything from coughs, toothaches, and menstrual cramps to babies’ fussiness. After decades of draconian penalties for possession of drugs that are ubiquitous in society, the tide is starting to turn. It is easy enough for Floridians to go to a licensed dispensary and buy marijuana and other cannabis products to cure what ails them, whatever it may be. Other psychotropic drugs were under investigation for their medical applications before the Controlled Substances Act put a stop to all of that. The FDA has granted special approval to a clinical trial on a drug that is, for all practical purposes, LSD packaged in a way that makes it practical for medical use. For the time being, though, LSD remains a Schedule I controlled substance, so if you are facing criminal charges for possession of LSD, contact a Tampa drug crime lawyer.
What’s the Deal With MM-120?
In a boring looking building in Broward County, there is a blacklight-illuminated “trip room” where patients consume MM-120 as part of a clinical trial. What is MM-120? MM stands for MindMed, the company that makes the drug, and 120 is a serial number. In terms of chemical structure, it is LSD; it only has some inactive ingredients added to it to make it more shelf stable; LSD by itself degrades quickly upon exposure to light, so if you ever bought acid tabs at an outdoor concert in the daytime, the trip was probably a lot less than you were hoping for.
The patients participating in the trial all have a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder. Each patient receives a gel tab that either contains a placebo or a dose of 25, 50, 100, or 200 micrograms of MM-120; the usual recreational dose in LSD tabs sold on the street is 100 micrograms or less. Researchers monitor patients in the trip room for 12 hours and then follow up with them on an outpatient basis for 12 weeks. So far, very few patients have reported that their experiences in the clinical trial were unpleasant. Two thirds of them have reported a substantial reduction in their anxiety symptoms. A notable difference between this and other clinical trials involving psychedelics is that the drug therapy is not combined with talk therapy.
Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges related to possession of Schedule I controlled substances such as LSD, cathinone, MDMA, peyote, synthetic cannabis, or psilocybin mushrooms. Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.
Sources:
miaminewtimes.com/news/medmind-tests-lsd-as-anxiety-treatment-in-psychedelic-phase-ii-study-17157539
