Thursday, Lafayette, Indiana

As a college student during the turbulent late 1960’s, I certainly remember the onset of the drug culture among young people. It was during this time that marijuana, acid and, for the really heavy hitters, heroin became more widely used and, most significantly, more openly used than ever. And among the headline stories was of course the introduction of the psychedelic drug LSD, and its profit, Dr. Timothy Leary.

Leary, of all things off Harvard professor, claims that he accidentally ingested a small mushroom while in Mexico. The effects, he testified “blew his mind.” The experience he said was mystical and “spiritual.” In the subsequent years, Leary openly advocated the use of the psychedelics, urging young people to“ turn on, tune in and drop out.”

Yes, this was the sage counsel of one of Harvard’s research professors to the young people of America. Is it any wonder that so many look back on that era with scorn? Since that time, of course there is still a distressing popularity for the use of illegal drugs, but wreck havoc in the lives of individuals and families. The appetite that too many Americans have for addictive drugs to follow Leary’s dubious advice is what keeps the global drug industry more lucrative for poor farmers been growing rice, corn or coffee.

Be that as it may, an amazing new study at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland subjected these “magic mushrooms,” technically known as psilocybin, to controlled laboratory tests with human volunteers. About three dozen individuals, in laboratory safe conditions, were given one dose of the mushrooms and had their reactions followed. While many reported the predictable experience of visions and altered consciousness, what was perhaps most surprising to the researchers was the long-lasting effects but the experience has had on the subjects. In fact, after a year, the majority are still raving about the memory and ongoing effects of their participation, even though they never had another hallucinogenic dose. They routinely described the experience as so powerful that it has significantly altered their lives spiritually and psychologically! Whoa!

On the one hand, this report probably doesn’t do much to dissuade young people about using hallucinogenic drugs. If anything, the vaunted name of Johns Hopkins University verifying that “magic mushrooms” will indeed blow your mind is probably going to be in the sales literature for every dope dealer in the world. This was certainly not what the researchers had in mind, of course. In fact, their intent was far more noble, pointing out that this experience can offer great relief from the psychic and even physical suffering of individuals who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Who among us wouldn’t celebrate that?

And yet it’s a twisted irony that those who take this news as an encouragement to using psychedelic drugs have perhaps consigned themselves in the end to a terminal illness.