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War on Drugs: Difference between revisions
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[[File:War on drugs Psychedelics.jpg|alt=War on drugs Psychedelics|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. The global War on Drugs started in the US.]] | [[File:War on drugs Psychedelics.jpg|alt=War on drugs Psychedelics|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. The global War on Drugs started in the US.]] | ||
'''Through the 1950s and 1960s, more than 1,000 research papers were written about LSD, psilocybin, and other [[Psychedelics|psychedelic]] drugs. Some 40,000 | '''Through the 1950s and 1960s, more than 1,000 research papers were written about LSD, psilocybin, and other [[Psychedelics|psychedelic]] drugs. Some 40,000 people were given these mind-expanding agents, and great progress was made in the understanding of how they might help people suffering from depression, alcoholism, and the psychospiritual distress'''. However, due to a series of unfortunate events psychedelics were mired in taboo due to a political agenda ultimately starting the War on Drugs. | ||
To | This witch hunt which persists even today, started on October 24, 1968 by the US government outlawing psychedelics. This caused a domino effect globally, leading to a 1971 UN resolution criminalising the medicines worldwide. To illustrate this timeline, the table below charts out notable landmarks leading up to worldwide psychedelic criminalisation. | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
! colspan="1" rowspan="1" |'''Year''' | ! colspan="1" rowspan="1" |'''Year''' | ||
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| colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Busch and Johnson, 1950<ref>Busch AK, Johnson WC (1950). L.S.D. 25 as an aid in psychotherapy; preliminary report of a new drug. Dis Nerv Syst 11: 241–243. [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]</ref> | | colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Busch and Johnson, 1950<ref>Busch AK, Johnson WC (1950). L.S.D. 25 as an aid in psychotherapy; preliminary report of a new drug. Dis Nerv Syst 11: 241–243. [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]</ref> | ||
|- | |- | ||
| colspan="1" rowspan="1" | | | colspan="1" rowspan="1" |1953 | ||
| colspan="1" rowspan="1" |American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Founding president Joel Elkes [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-440X(63)80082-6 publishes on LSD after openly self-experimenting with it] | | colspan="1" rowspan="1" |American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Founding president Joel Elkes [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-440X(63)80082-6 publishes on LSD after openly self-experimenting with it] | ||
| colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Bradley ''et al'', 1953<ref>Bradley PB, Elkes C, Elkes J (1953). On some effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (L.S.D. 25) in normal volunteers. J Physiol 121. [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]</ref>; Roberts, 2008<ref>Roberts A (2008) Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. Marshall Cavendish: London.</ref> | | colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Bradley ''et al'', 1953<ref>Bradley PB, Elkes C, Elkes J (1953). On some effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (L.S.D. 25) in normal volunteers. J Physiol 121. [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]</ref>; Roberts, 2008<ref>Roberts A (2008) Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain. Marshall Cavendish: London.</ref> | ||
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| colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Stevens, 1987<ref name=":1" />; Lee and Shlain, 1992<ref>Lee MA, Shlain B (1992) Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, and Beyond. In: Rev. Evergreen (ed). Grove Weidenfeld: New York. </ref> | | colspan="1" rowspan="1" |Stevens, 1987<ref name=":1" />; Lee and Shlain, 1992<ref>Lee MA, Shlain B (1992) Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, and Beyond. In: Rev. Evergreen (ed). Grove Weidenfeld: New York. </ref> | ||
|} | |} | ||
== Criminalisation Rationale == | |||
The period just before the criminalisation of psychedelics, at the peak of their use, was typified by the 1960s counterculture movement spreading ideas of antiwar, sexual liberation, environmentalism and women's rights. All of these new ideas were framed by the media as threatening traditional mainstream conservatism. This sentiment became most apparent when US President Richard Nixon proclaimed a thought leader of the counterculture movement, a Harvard psychiatrist Timothy Leary as “''the most dangerous man in America''”. Leary’s mantra of “''turn on, tune in, drop out''” was seen as a direct threat to the corporate establishment and the consumerist, materialist mindset and the state at large. | |||
'''References''' | '''References''' | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||