When you think of psychedelic drugs, you might conjure up images of the 60s and someone using LSD recreationally, but a new piece of legislation in Minnesota could change that.
A bill making its way through the Minnesota state legislature could one day allow doctors to use psychedelic drugs like LSD when treating patients.
State Rep. Andy Smith (DFL) says that studies have shown how psychedelic drugs have helped with various conditions, including depression and trauma-related injuries.
“It’s not like a broken arm where you have a clear path to healing. It’s something you have to deal with,” Smith said, talking about mental injuries.
Smith says psychedelic drugs can open a person’s mind, allowing them to face past trauma and inevitably help them heal from it.
One study published by Johns Hopkins Medicine found that psychedelic drugs can help fight “major depression” in most patients for up to a year. The medical institution, like others, has been researching the effects of using psychedelic drugs for medical purposes.
“Our findings add to evidence that, under carefully controlled conditions, this is a promising therapeutic approach that can lead to significant and durable improvements in depression,” Natalie Gukasyan, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said in the study.
However, Gukasyan cautioned that the results we see are in a research setting and require quite a lot of preparation and structured support from trained clinicians and therapists, and people should not attempt to try it on their own.”
For reasons such as this, Smith has introduced a bill that would create a task force to advise the legislature on the legal, medical, and policy issues associated with the legalization of psychedelic medicine in the state.
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