L.S.D. to be legal in Russia?

[pynchonoid]

from the MAPS list today:

<http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/15825_LSD.html>

Psychedelic drug, LSD-25, likely to be legalized in
Russian medicine
07/19/2005 17:54

A special initiative group of scientists is
establishing the Russian 
Psychedelic Society. The new organization has a goal
to legalize the 
use of psychoactive drugs in official medicine, the
mysterious 
lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, first and
foremost. A 
prominent US scientist, Stanislav Grof, is expected to
participate in 
the first congress of the new organization, which is
slated to take 
place in November 2005. Like Sigmund Freud or Carl
Yung, Grof is said 
to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in
psychology.

"LSD-25 was studied very well 40 years ago. Remarkable
qualities of 
the substance were used in the field of psychotherapy
back then. - A 
spokesman for the initiative group, Anton Chuppin
said. - 
Unfortunately, certain legal processes put an end to
the research 
when psychedelic drugs were excluded from the!  list
of legal 
medications. We believe that it was a wrong decision
to make. A group 
of American scientists and cultural figures addressed
to the US 
Surgeon General last year with a request to legalize
LSD-25 to use it 
in medicine," Mr. Chuppin said.

Actress Barbara Streisand was one of those, who signed
the 
above-mentioned petition. The actress confessed that
it was LSD, 
which helped her survive the nervous breakdown, when
the star 
discovered that her only son was a homosexual.

LSD-25 was discovered in 1943 by the leading
specialists of Sandoz, 
Switzerland's largest pharmaceutical enterprise,
Albert Hofmann, by 
accident. The chemist took a microscopic dose of the
substance and 
was surprised to find out later that his consciousness
separated from 
his body. The scientist saw the world in an unusual
light. Sandoz 
started sending LSD to all leading clinics of Europe
and the USA in 
1948. The results of scientific!  experiments were
simply astonishing. 
The drug gave an opportunity  to people to explore the
world 
differently: patients could travel to other worlds and
epochs, 
experience mystical feelings, which positively
affected their 
characters and psychological problems.

It is noteworthy that scientists of socialist
countries were studying 
the LSD phenomenon too, especially in Poland and
Czechoslovakia. 
Soviet specialist Maria Teleshevskaya conducted an
extensive research 
of the psychedelic drug and published a positive
report about her 
work in 1964.

The attitude to LSD started changing in the beginning
of the 1960s, 
when the drug went out of medical control and became
the common 
property for everyone. LSD went into everyday use for
hippies and 
artists. The broad use of the substance revealed its
negative, 
sometimes bizarre qualities. Hollywood diva Ava
Gardner, who took 
over 200 doses of LSD, could see a skinned skull in
the mirror 
instead her own reflection for several months. Speci! 
alists registered 
several incidents of strange suicides, when
LSD-drugged people jumped 
off high-rise buildings hoping to enter the setting
sun. Senator 
Robert Kennedy stated in 1964 that LSD posed the
central danger to 
the American youth. The production and distribution of
LSD-25 was 
prohibited on the territory of the USA already in
1966. Other 
countries followed the USA's example soon after that.

The medical research of LSD continued in America up to
1974, albeit 
only in the Maryland-based scientific center under the
direction of 
Stanislav Grof, an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. The
work, however, 
was subsequently shut down without any explanations.
Maria 
Teleshevskaya, a Soviet scientist, published her
analysis of the LSD 
analysis in the 1960s. The study was published in a
tiny print-run in 
the republic of Armenia.

Nevertheless, Stanislav Grof managed to expose the
results of his 
LSD-25 research in such boo!  ks as "Realms of the
Human Unconscious," 
"Beyond the Brain," LSD P sychotherapy," and several
others. The 
scientist's work exemplifies the effect of the
mysterious medication 
as it penetrates into the human mind and takes a
person on an 
incredible journey through time, space and dimensions.
In Grof's 
opinion, LSD acts as an accelerating agent of
religious strikening 
and helps a human being realize the objectivity of
divine principles. 
The LSD-produced effect helped Stanislav Grof
establish a study about 
four basic perinatal matrixes of the human mind. The
study became one 
of the most sensational and talked-about events in the
history of 
psychology.

Stanislav Grof's first visit to Russia took place in
1991. The 
scientist was very surprised to find out that his
basic works had 
been published in Russia illegally. Grof's most
important works were 
subsequently published in Russia again, this time
officially. The 
Federal Print Agency refused to republish "Realms of
the Human 
Unconscio!  us," supposedly on account of a special
letter from the 
Russian Ministry for Healthcare. It brings up the idea
that the 
creation of the Russian Psychedelic Society will
become a scandalous 
event, which will definitely raise numerous
discussions both in the 
society and in the political administration of Russia.

Read the original in Russian: 
http://www.pravda.ru/society/2005/8/81/336/20353_lsd.html
(Translated 
by: Dmitry Sudakov)


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