Sep 14, 2020

From Rave Culture to Rx: Schedule 1 Drugs' Therapeutic Potential

The history of psychoactive drugs in the United States is a complicated one. LSD, for instance, was originally used in a medical context in the 1950s, and shortly thereafter in secret experiments on unwitting participants by the CIA. In the 1960s psychedelics were used recreationally and even as a form of protest: Dr. Timothy Leary of Harvard advised people to take LSD and “tune in, turn on, [and] drop out” of mainstream culture. In 1970, the Nixon administration instituted the Controlled Substances Act, which made psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs illegal. And, the 1980s war on drugs cemented the idea in the cultural consciousness that drugs which the government labeled Schedule 1 had little to redeem them. But recently, a variety of Schedule 1 drugs have been granted “breakthrough therapy” status by the FDA. That designation allows drugs to be fast-tracked for development after early clinical trials suggest significant therapeutic promise....