Good Lord the stupidity keeps coming faster than I can keep up. There's an article in this week's Newsweek about a couple of scientists who had an idea that ecstasy....yes the same ecstasy that made you flood the world with your released inhibitions last time you went to a rave, might be of some use in the practice of medicine, particularly the treatment of severe anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. Not a bad thought if you think about the pharmacology of it, but sometimes things that are intuitive work out and sometimes they don't. So these folks have started a few trials to see if there's any merit to the idea. That's what science does. It experiments to see if theories hold up in the real world. Been happening since the time of the ancient Greeks at least.
In steps the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which when asked to comment opposed such research. David Murray, policy analyst for the office said, "kids will say, 'Hey it's a medicine, they give it out at Harvard'" (Take a look at the whole article here if you're so inclined: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7613571/site/newsweek/ )I challenge anyone to come up with anything this guy could have said that would be stupider. It...may....turn....out......to...be....a....medicine....you dumbass..... that's the whole point of the study. Evidently I should stop filling Vicodin prescriptions, since you know, the kids will then think it's a medicine, and see that it's ok to be an addict now. First the parents turning against their children......now society denying itself possible cures. The war on drugs is more insane than I imagined. I long for the days when morons at the counter were my biggest frustration.
2 comments:
It was nice to see that you spoke on this topic with a pretty straightforward and scientific air. Too many people view modern "drugs" (the illicit sort) as horribly taboo things with no medicinal purpose, when many of them were actually prominent pharmaceuticals prior to their outlaw.
Just a little background on this particular substance-
MDMA was originally synthesized and patented by Merck near the turn of the 20th century as a food additive, but was filed away with no apparent immediate usefulness. It was later rediscovered by Alexander Shulgin in the late '60s, who then introduced it to some psychologist buddies in the '70s. Ecstasy got its real start and first legitimate use as a psychopharmaceutical with very favorable use among patients suffering from PTSD or undergoing therapy for other traumatic reasons, like being terminally ill. In the '80s, people were coming on daytime television to sing the praises of how the drug had helped them, even though it was gaining popularity as a party drug due to its unregulated status.
In defense of MDMA, a drug that I have some experience with (it has helped me a LOT of in terms of dealing with past trauma and clinical depression,) this is one of those cases where intuition pans out.
Post a Comment