Ed Dunkel Posted August 19, 2010 I was wondering the other day, after a several science news articles again stating the benefits of psychedelics in psychiatry and the studies by MAPS and other Scientists working in the field pointing to such benefits. If there were psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, social workers and the likes in Oz that are psychedelic friendly. Are aware of it, use it them selves or either use it in there sessions. Could we put a list together of these people by state? Would that be useful? Or is there a list like this already? E D Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kindness Posted August 19, 2010 I'm pretty confident you could count psychologists, counsellors and social workers out of the equation. Maybe psychiatrists who had research projects going would be allowed to use psychedelics... other than that IMO it would be something that the aforementioned professionals chose to discretely use with their clients. Therefore not something that would be good to have a register of. This is just my opinion. quote from here by Prof Alexander Shulgin: http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/poison/ecstasy/alexander.htm Q. Has that led to the situation today where people are now struggling to do their initial base line work on it so that it can be reclassified or used medically? A. It's a self-supporting denial, "a Catch 22", in a sense. If something has no medical use because it has a high abuse potential, there is no way of finding out what medical use it has because you're not allowed to test it on people because it has a high abuse potential. That said, some work is being done. By Dr. Strassman, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he did human studies with DMT and by Dr Grob at UCLA, who's presently doing human studies with MDMA. Mind you, this is after a great deal of letter writing and political schmoozing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
occidentalis Posted August 20, 2010 Sounds like a great idea, no doubt there are some psychiatric workers who understand the potential benefits - only problem I can see with it is they may prefer not to have their names listed on a public forum in this way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mescalito Posted August 20, 2010 My Psych and G.P are aware and supportive/interested/experienced....but I agree with the last post unfortunately.....sometimes it comes down to your rapport with said practitioner and it's a one on one relationship. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
psilosophical Posted August 20, 2010 thats awesome mesc. ive dealt with a fair few health professionals and have tried to be as open and honest as possible, yet they still didnt seem to get it. so many just seem to have this ridiculous "all illegal drugs are evil" view deeply ingrained on their minds. i dont bother trying anymore, just keep my mouth shut and nod my head and let them happily believe their own ignorant points of view. would love to have dealt with someone who had some understanding of potential positives of certain magical substances. someday... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kindness Posted August 20, 2010 yep lots of prof's and para-prof's can be really closed minded, but then lots can be open too... just gotta keep on the hunt and find the right one I guess... or use different ones for different parts of your story One of my personal favourites was when I saw a D & A counsellor about my Benzo usage and told them I was trying to take VALERIAN, (the herb ya know) to help with sleep / sleeping through the night... she proceeded to inform me that valium was first synthesized from the VALERIAN plant - it was a little hard to take her seriously after that point... dood. peace Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thelema Posted August 22, 2010 she was probably thinking of Valproic acid, which is a mood stabiliser drug, which indeed was synthezised(by its official name 2-propylvaleric acid)in 1882 by Burton as an analogue of valeric acid, which is found naturally in valerian. Hence also Depakote, aks sodium Valproate. But Valium? - I don't think so. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kindness Posted August 23, 2010 wow! Seriously huichol! that is pretty bloody amazing. I am really not a chemist at all.. can you try and explain to me, (if you could be bothered) what an analogue is. I get that valeric acid would / is extracted from valerian - is the valeric acid then further messed around with to produce sodium valproate? or is that entirely chemical so to speak? Sorry if I sound like a dope when it comes to chemistry etc. I'm just not clever in that way. peace Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mescalito Posted August 23, 2010 (edited) wow! Seriously huichol! that is pretty bloody amazing. I am really not a chemist at all.. can you try and explain to me, (if you could be bothered) what an analogue is. I get that valeric acid would / is extracted from valerian - is the valeric acid then further messed around with to produce sodium valproate? or is that entirely chemical so to speak? Sorry if I sound like a dope when it comes to chemistry etc. I'm just not clever in that way. peace Just a couple of clicks away http://en.wikipedia....y_%28biology%29 and yes chemists love nothing more than messing with the original structure Valium was synthesised before Xanax (bastards!)and for example ergot is the base model for Lucy. GABA is outlawed under the Analogues Act becasuse it can be synthesised into GHbeee. Shulgins work with Phens was changing the base model of a novel chemical into various psychoactives. Your body even makes them from what you eat. Corrrect me if I'm wrong....I'm under the influence of an analogue,which impairs memory recall and time-line of thoughts to make sense of time itself Edited August 23, 2010 by mescalito Share this post Link to post Share on other sites