Stop voodoo pharmacology

Do you remember the guy that swallowed 40,000 MDMA pills and lived? The quantity this mdmaholic took got a lot of attention, less so the fact that it's apparently possible to swallow loads of this supposedly highly dangerous drug - up to 25 pills a day for years on end - and live. Try drinking alcohol at comparable intake levels and you'll end up not with memory problems that may or may not be transitory, as this guy did, but as a 120 percent proof corpse. So it's not entirely surprising, though welcome, that this case leads The Lancet to propagate an end to prohibition, at least for purposes of medical research:

Exaggerated risks of harm have contributed to the demonisation of psychedelic drugs as a social evil. But although this dangerous reputation—generated and perpetuated by the often disproportionately stiff penalties for their use—is helpful for law enforcement, it does not correspond to the evidence. Rather, the social prescription against psychedelic drugs that hinders properly controlled research into their effects and sideeffects is largely based on social and legal, as opposed to scientific, concerns. To maximise research into therapeutic benefits without exacerbating real social harms a legal structure that recognises this distinction is sorely needed.

(Caption courtesy of Jacob Sullum.)

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