Just when you thought it was safe to take LSD, a dangerous look alike floods the market. Reformers blame a drug-policy that forces psychedelics into an unregulated underworld.
On the 10th of June, the NBOME series of psychedelics were placed under a year-long temporary ban by the Government. What will be the outcome of the ban? Even more untested and unheard of research chemicals. Why did the NBOME chemicals become so popular? Because the government won’t do the logical thing and legalise the psychedelics that we actually know about: LSD, DMT, mescaline & psilocybin.
Unlike the aforementioned psychedelics, the NBOME chemicals have not been subject to testing to confirm whether they are physically dangerous or not. Users who were either unable to access these drugs or feared legal repercussions were forced into a corner and the NBOME chemicals seemed to provide a solution. As NBOME use became more widespread, we heard more and more about the potential side effects: seizures, fainting and even death.
Unlike with the NBOME chemicals, an overdose of the traditional psychedelics would be a very deliberate act. There has not been a single documented case of a person dying due to LSD, for example. Alcohol, on the other hand, kills nearly 9000 people in the UK every year. To me, it seems totally unreasonable that I am able to drink myself to death and smoke lung-shrivelling tobacco but I could face up to 7 years in prison for possessing LSD.
A recent report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction showed that the number of new synthetic drugs is rising at increasing rate, with 73 new drugs recorded in 2012 compared to only 49 in 2011. The research chemical, or legal high, market is expanding at an alarming rate. It’s only a matter of time until yet another untested drug takes the place of the NBOME series. How can we tackle this revolving door of legality and prohibition?
The solution, to me, appear rather obvious. For centuries people have used psychoactive substances to achieve a level of altered consciousness and no laws are going to change that. It is the time that the Government ditched its ‘holier than thou’ attitude and actually embarked on a pragmatic change in policy. We have two options; we can allow people to freely use the psychedelics which have been used safely for decades, if not centuries or we can allow people to carry on risking their lives with drugs we know nothing about.
– article submitted by Scott Lumsden.
Cognitive Liberty UK 