Timothy Leary once said that “We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history, but they’ve got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.” Well, they could have gone to the San Jose Holiday Inn to attend the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Conference. The Santa Cruz-based group brought together 1,000 people to discuss the benefits of psychedelic drugs, especially as a means of helping people tackling such problems as depression, OCD and PTSD.
It’s been at least a decade since testing was allowed on psychedelic substances, but despite their negative associations, some speakers pointed out that they are being used in a variety of medical settings. Ecstasy, for instance, is being used in South Carolina to encourage rape victims to open up about their experiences; in Boston it is used with patients in the final stages of terminal cancer to help them cope with dying.
While any studies that exist are still inconclusive, the attendees shared the belief that no one will really know the benefits unless the substances are actually studied. In that sense, the participants have come a long way from the 1960s. “We’re not counterculture. We’re part of the culture,” said conference organizer Randolph Hencken. He wants people to “Turn on. Tune in,” but that doesn’t mean that they have to “Drop out.” Read more at the Mercury News.
