http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b396de10-180a-11df-91d2-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
By Andrew Jack in London
Published: February 12 2010
A British charity is stepping up efforts to rehabilitate LSD, one of
the world's best-known "recreational" drugs, for medicinal use.
The Beckley Foundation, which numbers Professor Colin Blakemore,
former head of the Medical Research Council, among its scientific
advisers, is helping fund and lobby for a series of clinical trials
to study the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on the human brain.
The foundation has helped co-ordinate a network of researchers and
supported the recent launch of one Swiss and two US studies, as well
as prepare for a clinical trial in Germany and hold discussions about
research within Britain.
The action follows years of suspicion by governments towards LSD
since its original role in psychotherapy following the second world
war was usurped by the counterculture of the 1960s, triggering bans
in the US in 1968 and around the world after the 1971 UN Convention
on Psychotropic Substances.
Amanda Feilding, who created the Beckley Foundation to promote
psychedelic research, said: "We want to open up these incredibly
valuable compounds that have been used throughout history. We know
LSD is non-toxic and non-addictive. The only way to overcome the
taboo is by giving scientific explanations of how to use them beneficially."
Her efforts to restart research on LSD's medical applications reflect
a long-standing personal interest in the uses of the drug as well as
a pledge she made on his death-bed to Albert Hofmann, the Swiss
chemist who first synthesised LSD in 1938 and died just two years
ago, aged 102.
Sandoz, Mr Hofmann's long-standing employer, sold LSD for
psychotherapy from the late 1940s, but after its patent expired in
the 1960s, the drug became more widely associated with figures such
as Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary. Swiss therapists were among the
last to stop using it for research more than a decade ago.
However, recent efforts have resumed to study its effect on the
brain, with specific applications including psychotherapy and
treatment of addiction, pain, "cluster headaches" and potentially in
degenerative diseases. While regulators have again begun to allow
research on LSD, permission has been held up by continued suspicion.
Ms Feilding said her work had included identifying licensed
manufacturers of the drug, and negotiating with the US authorities
for strict control measures including transport in a locked safe,
accompanied by police guards.
The Beckley Foundation's scientific advisers also include Prof David
Nutt, who chaired the government's advisory committee on the misuse
of drugs until he was sacked last year by Alan Johnson, the home
secretary, after criticising the official decision not to downgrade
its assessment of the dangers of cannabis.
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