News Ecstasy... A Possible Treatment For PTSD

[Middle of Nowhere]

Anthony, Free float,

I have to agree with you that it is a useless endeavor to run or hide or try to change what I'm facing, which is a lot. I see the pattern of my drug use ties into my disassociation's with myself, my perspective and the chain of abusive relationships. I have used it as a means of both avoiding living and dying. I hear you say it hurts others as well, I know that's true but I always just toked some more and dissociated from that thought. I just didn't know why I needed to. I have to find out who I am without many things now. It will be a long time because of the severity I face. (((thank you for your honesty in that))) I have to agree that anything that I choose to do is a choice. It's my body :D . I suppose I have had my reasons. I have always been seen and treated like an object because of what I look like, and what I consider (normal) behavior. It has been a tool others have used to control me. Preferring to quiet me with it and pills, booze, and the likes. To sedate me for their means. I have had enough of being that person, just a toy. Though I am terrified right now that I will indeed die. Shrinking away untill I really do disappear.

I need to put it down now if I stand chance of ever knowing who I actually am...and what I can do.
Also I must champion my own personal responsibility now. I'll feel less like a victim....less like a refugee....perhaps I can learn what freedom is.

I would like to thank you personally for your words on the subject.
For listening to me, there is no greater gift anyone has ever given me than honoring my voice.

"When I was young I used to admire intelligence, now that I'm older I admire kindness." Author Unkown
God Bless and have a good today.

 

[freefloat]

Just put on the song 'Try a little tenderness' . Yeah thers a lot of leechs out there that pray upon the kindness of others. What pisses me of the most is the lack of neccesity in cruelty. Its hard as the isolation can lead us to poor choices in who we are with and stay with. I knew my first marraige was over when she said 'come on hit, hit me i know you wanna'. Welli didnt but the damage to myself form doing that would have destroyed me to my moral core. Given her control. I haven't lived with another now for 13 years by my choice. Another topic but as we are way off topic here anyway...... ((((MON)))

My whole point in respondingto this thread was that making substances illicit and the legal consequences are unjust. The information that has been presented is typically motivated form a financial, moral and political point of view. What I saw with IV drug users over the years is heart breaking. I'm sick of seeing their suffering agrivated due to the laws that exist. The war on drugs is a war on people that are suffering. Too many profiting from that. It fuels war, poverty, slavery, etc etc etc. We cant legislated away form human behaviour. Did making homosexual acts illgeal cure society of such acts? No. Why whould it? Why should we even begin to homognais the wonder of the varoety of the human existance? We cant and shouldnt.

Last year 800,000 people in the states were arrested for pot. WTF? How many that abuse kids were charged? Not many. Its twisted. Should MON go to jail for smoking? But she does risk that. It's bullshit!

We all have coping mechanisms for anything we find unpleasent. For me listening to music has been a coping mechaanism. Is the escape I find in that wrong? Im sure it effects my hippo campus. Lets make music illegal. Lets make sex illegal as some use that for an escape. Where does it end? Why did it start? We need to survive in order to live another day. If someone is in such sorrow they take a toke, do a smash, crank some tunes or make love to a stranger to get through the day so be it. Would you rather they take their own life instead? Should the propganda oin illicit drugs be so pervasive that it strikes fera into some that causes them to reject a valid form of treatment? NO!

I belive the Hedonists felt that every thing that brings pleasure brings pain. So they would isolate them selves in caves and remove all pleasure as a way of removing all pain. If a toke helps alot and casues little negative effect the net gain is positive. For some having a puff puts them into a paranoid state. Therfore the pain exceeds the benefit. Most others find some relief. It becomes clearer the less judgement is applied.

Anthony I do agree with you in on some points. But I find your assumptions to be that. You can say smoking pot is interferering in their ability to heal but thats a guess. I bleive there is flaw in the logic that attempts to isolate and find causal relationships and apply it to all. People just aren't that simple nor is PTSD and what else the person may be dealing with. I belive your right in that the best we can hope for is some releif not a cure. Through self medication people are finding some releif. With varying consequences. Imprisonment shouldnt be one of them. It's artificial.

What if they made lithium illegal tomorrow? Would we be validated in putting people with bi-polar disorders in jail for obtaining poor quality, expensive lithium. Where they had to sell themselves or do crime to support the high cost of an illegal substance?

Heroin(invented by Beyer) is illegal in most countries but not in others(Switzerland, Britan, Etc). I met the Doc that started the Heroin trials in Switzerland. His data seemed solid and he came across as very astute and reasonable man. Methadone was illegal in Germany until approx 1995. They used it to help many addicts and put an end to the needle park scene in Frankfurt at the time. Again that Doc seemed very reaosnable to me when we met. Chaectarising people as wacko hippies for understanding something others don't is a political response to solid social and medical practice.

What they found in Farnkfurt was that by liberlaising the drugs kids interest dropped significantly. It removed the outlaw appeal. The marginaistion that many feel and found a home in that culture. Portugal showed no significant increase in drug abuse when they legalised drugs. One of the biggest problems in Canada and the US is that foreign data and stratagies are thown out and need to be re-proven again on domestic soil. Are people really that diffrent? Not my experience. Re-inventing the wheel.

You can't draw any conclusions from doing the right thing badly. You can't be frozen in action if its outcome isn’t 100%. Life isn’t like that. Nor id drug policy. There are some benefits to keeping it illegal just the benefits of legalization are materially superior. You can't judge legalization though a model that implements it badly. There is way to do it, do it right and for society as a whole to benefit. The evidence is there. Just try a little tenderness when looking at it. Don't ask others to step out of their comfort zone until you are ready to meet them there.

 

[freefloat]

I just started reading the medical m.j. thread thought this is progressive:

“This is one simple step towards doing something on behalf of our veterans,” Pace told Denver’s KMGH-TV. “An eight-member board of physicians in New Mexico just verified that medical marijuana does assist fight (sic) the symptoms of PTSD.”

 

[anthony]

You can always start your own thread about legal issues and drugs, as this one is about the effects of ectacsy / MDMA in treating PTSD.

 

[cherryblossom]

Whilst I don't want to continue to take this thread off topic, I need to point out that heroin is illegal in Britain.

Heroin(invented by Beyer) is illegal in most countries but not in others(Switzerland, Britan, Etc).

Heroin, is very much illegal in the UK. It is a Class A drug, and as such, possession can get you up to 7 years in jail. Supplying heroin can get you life imprisonment. Both offences also carry unlimited fines.

However, diamorphine is legally prescribed in the UK as an analgesic. But there is a world of difference between heroin used illegally as a recreational drug, and diamorphine being prescribed and controlled by Doctors as an analgesic.

 

[freefloat]

Heroin is a Beyer brand name for 6,2,diactylmorphine. It is a controlled susbstance and not illegal in the UK. Ie. it has a theraputic use as in treating addiction. In the UK it is prescibed, by Doctors, to addicts in a smokable form. With great results. As some can posses the drug legally its unprescribed use is refered to as illicit. Such as ampetamines are legal.

MDMA is illegal as its in a US schedule 1 classification ie no therpatutic use. No one can legally posses it for any prupose.

 

[cherryblossom]

Heroin is illegal in the UK, maybe the 'brand name' of heroin, by 'Beyer, isn't recognised in the UK?

I have never heard of a smokable, legal form of heroin being prescribed in the UK, Nor can I find it in BNF, can you tell me the specific drug name or trade name so I can further investigate?

 

[freefloat]

A rose by any other name....look at the third paragraph.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin

Its been in use in the UK for about 10+ years for opioid replacement therapy. Therefore some do have legal possession of heroin. The chemist dilutes a dose and compounds it in a cigarette. The patient typically picks up a enough for the day, 2-3 doses as heroin has a 6-8 hour 1/2 life. Its available by prescripiton. Not in the States or Canada though as their is no lawful avenue for its posseion or use. Its illegal. Deemed no theraputic use.

It is no more illegal than ativan or codeine, just more controlled. As Illicit possession/manufacture/distribution of either of those is an offense. If heroin is illegal then that could be said for all prescription meds. MDMA is illegal as no one can posses it under any circumstances, except for the exemptions granted for study. Amphetamines are legal if obtained by prescription. MDMA was available and used therapeutically until being made illegal in 83/84. Ie no therapeutic use even though it does and did have a theraputic use.

'Sometimes the bull has more than two horns', A Zen saying.

 

[freefloat]

Anthony: Yes this did segway. The point I was making is that fear from propganda about commonly abused drugs should not deter responsible use nor detract from any therapeutically proven benefit of that substance. By educating others I hope others may take the study and its benefits on its own merit. Consider the therapy and if its right for them. Or reject it but base their personal decision with the facts.

Just 'cause some may abuse a substance doesn’t negate its appropriate use. Nor does appropriate use bring on the damage of illicit use.

 

[cherryblossom]

A rose by any other name....look at the third paragraph.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin

Its been in use in the UK for about 10+ years for opioid replacement therapy.

As I already stated, the difference is between heroin, as a Class A illegal substance used illegally as a recreational drug, and diamorphine, prescribed by Doctors for pain relief purposes. Heroin addicts are generally prescribed methadone or buprenorphine, as a legal alternative to illegal street heroin.

The chemist dilutes a dose and compounds it in a cigarette. The patient typically picks up a enough for the day, 2-3 doses as heroin has a 6-8 hour 1/2 life. Its available by prescripiton

As I have said, I don't think that is available in the UK. Please provide a reference, (for example where this can be found in the BNF) if this is available in the UK, because this will be very useful to pass on to my patients. Thanks.

 

[freefloat]

Not sure what you are missing here. diacetylmorphine is heroin. Yes i am aware of methadone and buprenorphine.
Not sure what a BNF is?

Under the chemical names diamorphine and diacetylmorphine, heroin is a legally prescribed controlled drug in the United Kingdom, and is supplied in tablet or injectable form for the same indications as morphine is, often being preferred over morphine due to its lower side-effect profile. It is also available for prescription to long-term users in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark alongside psycho-social care,[9][10] and a similar programme is being campaigned for by liberal political parties in Norway

 

[cherryblossom]

BNF is the British National Formulary, which is basically the UK 'bible' of prescribed medication. As I have said, I can't find any reference to, nor have I ever heard of a pharmacist in the UK diluting heroin into a cigarette, available on prescription.

In the UK, you will not find a legally produced medication, that uses 'Heroin' as the drug name. So perhaps this 'cigarette' goes by a different name, other than heroin? As I say, I'd be very interested to hear what the registered trade name of this legally prescribed drug is, so I can pass this information on to my patients. Is this a new treatment?