Alcohol, Marijuana,...which drug should be legalized next?

I think alcohol should be de-legalised, also tobacco and smartphones. Leave marijuana legal, make cocaine and heroin / opium legal.

Caffeine (and all associated products) should also be a heavily regulated substance available by prescription only.

Oregon may (probably won't) legalise Psilocybin Cinema is (psychedelic mushrooms) in the near future.

nicotinekills wrote:

Cocaine? Heroin?

I'm not sure we'll see the day when either of these is legalized.

My bet would be on psilocybin being the next "drug" to be legalized because of two factors:

1) the amount of research currently happening at places like MAPS, Johns Hopkins, and NYU on the medicinal quality of psilocybin (and other psychedelics) and

2) the extremely low addictive qualities of psilocybin (as well as other psychedelics like DMT/ayahuasca/peyote).

Both cocaine and heroin are highly addictive, have little (if any) medicinal value, are usually not "used" but abused. It's a harder argument to make for these to be legalized.

Psychedelics will be the next class of drugs to be legalized. Starting in 2020 in Oregon with mushrooms. And MDMA, which may or may not be a psychedelic depending on who you ask.

Several psychedelics are in phase 3 clinical trials and have been granted breakthough drug status by the FDA. So those will be legally available, but controlled, soon.

But honestly these are some of the safest and least addictive substances out there. Should all be legalized. MDMA, mushrooms, mescaline, LSD. Legalize all of them.

I'm in favor of legalizing cocaine as well, but that is a much bigger step politically.

Legalize all drugs. Or, at the very least decriminalize all drugs use like in Portugal.

nicotinekills wrote:

Cocaine? Heroin?

How many deaths are caused by alcohol?

How many deaths are caused by cigarettes?

How many deaths are caused my marijuana?

How many deaths are caused by Heroin?

How many deaths are caused by Cocaine?

The deaths due to the business of dealing Heroin and Cocaine don’t count.

Due to their addictive nature hard drugs like Heroine and Cocaine would never be legal. Recreational drugs like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, LSD are a different story.

Alan

[quote]Drugs are OK, OK wrote:

Several psychedelics are in phase 3 clinical trials and have been granted breakthough drug status by the FDA. So those will be legally available, but controlled, soon.

/quote]

This is very interesting to hear. I have always wondered why investigation into the medicinal efficacy of LSD (say, for psychiatric patients) were stopped and the thing simply made into an illicit street drug. Before and during the whole hippie thing, it is my understanding that LSD was used and found favourable in the treatment of schizophrenia and some substance addictions. Was it just because the hippies were having too much fun using it recreationally?

Frankly I'd be more keen to try LSD, administered by a doctor or psychiatrist I trusted, to alleviate depression / anxiety than I would be willing to go on any of the mood-altering anti-depressants currently in vogue.

Also, isn't it impossible to obtain actual LSD anymore? I mean the stuff from the 60's and 70's, the stuff on blotter paper or sugar cube, etc. As differentiated from mushrooms or psilocybin or peyote or whatever else which, I understand, is a different experience. I have never taken psychedelics but have been given to understand that old-style 'acid' simply isn't available anymore these days. All the kids have gone to opioid pills or meth or ecstasy or whatever else, and no-one knows how to make the real LSD anymore?

Runningart2004 wrote:

Due to their addictive nature hard drugs like Heroine and Cocaine would never be legal. Recreational drugs like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, LSD are a different story.

Alan

Find that BS. Because even drugs like pot are addictive, despite what the pot propagandist say that it isn't. Coke and heroin was legal during the 1800s. Was it a problem back than? All what would happen if you legalize heroin and other hard drugs, is that it would result in less deaths and dieases for addicts and violent crime would drop(look up Portugal as a example). If we legalized all drugs, the violence in central and south America would drop dramatically. What happened to the mob after prohibition, is what would happen to the cartels south of the border. There would be very little if any increase in hard drugs if we legalized them(alcohol use actually went up during prohibition). Just think, how many people are saying to themselves, "man if heroin was legal I would shoot up right now. ". No, people who want to, use them anyways. And the whole anti drug propaganda is BS anyways, that they teach to the public. For the most addictive drugs like heroin, only like 10% of people who try it once become addicts. Me personally, I'm anti drugs. I would never use them. But I don't think the government should put people in prison, just because they use a substance.

Legalize all drugs, de-stigmatize them, regulate them, tax them. M.A.G.A.

Yes, basically the war on drugs was ramped up by the Nixon administration as a way to target hippies and people of color. Significantly including much of the opposition to the Vietnam war.

No, this is complete BS. You can find LSD. On blotter paper or in liquid form.

adderall should be legalized immediately. GDP would quadruple in a few months.

leary's ghost wrote:

This is very interesting to hear. I have always wondered why investigation into the medicinal efficacy of LSD (say, for psychiatric patients) were stopped and the thing simply made into an illicit street drug. Before and during the whole hippie thing, it is my understanding that LSD was used and found favourable in the treatment of schizophrenia and some substance addictions.

Frankly I'd be more keen to try LSD, administered by a doctor or psychiatrist I trusted, to alleviate depression / anxiety than I would be willing to go on any of the mood-altering anti-depressants currently in vogue.

Just to speak to the medical efficacy: LSD and other psychdelics were investigated and used pretty significantly in medication assisted psychotherapy. MDMA was used in much the same way before it was outlawed in the 80s . It did show some promise in treatment for a variety of conditions. Much of the current work by MAPS and others has built off of this early work and all of the trials, as far as I am aware, are for a medication assisted psychotherapy model. There are specific trials for PTSD and I think the other one is for anxiety related to people dying from cancer. The PTSD one is using MDMA and there are lots of articles all over the news about it. The cancer one uses psilocybin. There are various other trials, including for treatment resistant depression in earlier stages (I think this one is in phase IIb trials). There have been some early stage trials for LSD, but generally the researchers have steered away from LSD and towards other substances, but solely because of the stigma involved. LSD is an extremely clean and extremely safe molecule.

You should read "How To Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan. He goes into all of the current research on psychedelics.

And the LSD from back in the day is still currently made. It's LSD-25 that was sythesized by Albert Hofmann in the 30s and the same acid is currently made today.

LSD? It can have long term effects:

https://luxury.rehabs.com/psychedelics-abuse/long-term-effects-lsd/

Plus people who take LSD are more likely to take pretty much everything else once their sense of reality has been altered. It was the drug my cousin started on and eventually led him down a road of drug and alcohol use that ended in death at the age of 30.

joedirt wrote:

....people who take LSD are more likely to take pretty much everything else once their sense of reality has been altered. It was the drug my cousin started on and eventually led him down a road of drug and alcohol use that ended in death at the age of 30.

Evidence, beyond a single data point?

I have several friends who did LSD in university 10-50x. They are all worth US$2-3mm (at least) now in their 50s.

Mushrooms.

Almost no harm to self. None to others.

Impossible to overdose.

Many psychological beneits

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2010/11/02/scoring-drugs

It might help to treat the underlying issue of why people seek out drugs in the first place. I'm actually in favor of PEDs and longevity "drugs." If someone is engaged and wants to be a better human being, I think that's something we should promote.

Drugs like alcohol and marijuana seem like distraction drugs, that try to make you less of a human being.

So, I would argue the next drugs that should be legalized are drugs that enhance human performance in pretty much any way. I think it's weird that humans aren't naturally supplemented with testosterone fairly early in life, and probably HGH too. There's a lot of research around metformin too.

These should be common supplements, perhaps prescribed to limit overdoses or misuse, that are used by nearly everyone.

joedirt wrote:

LSD? It can have long term effects:

https://luxury.rehabs.com/psychedelics-abuse/long-term-effects-lsd/

Plus people who take LSD are more likely to take pretty much everything else once their sense of reality has been altered. It was the drug my cousin started on and eventually led him down a road of drug and alcohol use that ended in death at the age of 30.

I know someone that would drink milk at lunch every day, eventually he would drink soft drinks and then by the time he was in college..... he would drink beer. What a terrible path he was on. It was all the fault of that darned milk. Had he stuck to water only he would have never had a beer.

Drugs are OK, OK wrote:

Psychedelics will be the next class of drugs to be legalized. Starting in 2020 in Oregon with mushrooms. And MDMA, which may or may not be a psychedelic depending on who you ask.

Several psychedelics are in phase 3 clinical trials and have been granted breakthough drug status by the FDA. So those will be legally available, but controlled, soon.

But honestly these are some of the safest and least addictive substances out there. Should all be legalized. MDMA, mushrooms, mescaline, LSD. Legalize all of them.

I'm in favor of legalizing cocaine as well, but that is a much bigger step politically.

Ding, ding.

The only question is, which state will go RECREATIONAL with any of these psychedelics? The medical uses are huge, but overall, they're just like marijuana.