Taking a Look Inside Hallucinogens

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Hallucinogens: a general group of pharmacological agents that can be divided into three broad categories: psychedelics, dissociatives, and deliriants. Hallucinogenic drugs have played a role in civilization for thousands of year. It began with naturally occurring hallucinogens, such as the peyote cactus plant and wild mushrooms. Now there are man made drugs that have the same or more intense affects. These include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), MDMA (ecstasy), and dextromethorphan (DMX, often found in cough syrup). Within this essay, I will cover the history, production, and affects of hallucinogenic drugs.
Peyote, a naturally produced plant, has been used as a hallucinogen since as early as 200 AD. It was originally used in Native Mexican religious ceremonies, but spread quickly to North American tribes. In 1620, the use of peyote was banned by the Spanish Inquisition. Peyote received an even more negative view in the 1960s, when it began being used by the “hippie counterculture”. Its use was again banned in the Drug Abuse Control Amendment in 1965. It seems as though drugs go through cycles of legality and return to being banned from use.
But how do hallucinogens actually affect the brain? This particular type of narcotic affects a person’s perceptions of reality. People hear sounds, see visions, or feel things that are not actually occurring. It over stimulates senses and causes distortion in perception. What causes these distortions of thought? Hallucinogens such as LSD and psilocybin (found in mushrooms) cause their effect by disrupting the serotonin neurotransmitter. The serotonin system is involved in perceptual, behavioral, and regulatory systems. This explains the disruption in mood, sexual behavior, and sensory ...

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...e toxic affects of older drugs. Migraine and schizophrenia treatments are also based off of drugs that target serotonin neurotransmitters.
When discovered, LSD had a considerable research interest. However, this stopped after it was placed under the US controlled substance act in 1970. It was classified a schedule one drug, meaning it had a high risk for abuse and no accepted medical use. There are no current, legal human studies with LSD, although there are some with MDMA, DMT, and psilocybin. But, the FDA has recently approved a human study examining how LSD affects the brain’s neurotransmitter systems. Harvard Medical School is also looking into a study on how hallucinogens affect cluster headaches. In my opinion, there has to be some way to use a derivative of LSD in either psychological research or treatment and I believe researchers will eventually find one.

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