Street drugs, such as ecstasy (MDMA) and cannabis, are being examined for their medicinal value.
“When it was banned, it was written off the pendulum,” says Dr John Kelly about ecstasy. Dr Kelly, of NUI Galway’s department of pharmacology and therapeutics, says the stigma of ecstasy made it harder to research.
“Rave culture made it difficult to study MDMA therapeutically, initially,” he says. “However, soldiers returning from war are very vocal, they aren’t going to put up with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They aren’t worried if the drug is legal or illegal — they think the law should be changed if a drug has benefits.”
But today illegal drugs are being tested up to clinical trials and even therapeutic use. In the US, doctors Michael and Annie Mithoefer, of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), use MDMA to treat war veterans with PTSD, in South Carolina. They say MDMA decreases fear and defensiveness and increases trust, taken as part of a therapy programme. Mithoefers’ research, in 2010, found that after two months of treatment, 80% of the patients no longer had PTSD. A follow-up in 2012 found that 74% were still clear.
The Mithoefers are treating firefighters and police officers, who have chronic PTSD, with MDMA, in a study that lasts until 2014. MDMA is is only administered a small number of times in a controlled setting. Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) is being used to treat depression, in conjunction with counselling. Peer-reviewed papers advocate cannabinoid, found in cannabis, for treating breast cancer, glaucoma, chronic pain, MS and other conditions.
Dr David Finn, also of NUI Galway’s department of pharmacology and therapeutics, organised the sixth European workshop on cannabinoid research in Trinity College Dublin, earlier this month.
Source: Irish Examiner, 30/04/13
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