According to a preliminary study conducted by University of Arizona psychiatrist Dr. Francisco A. Moreno, psilocybin, the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’, may provide relief for patients suffering from severe OCD.

This small-scale test, the first of its kind since the drug was outlawed in 1970, was not enough to come up with any real scientific conclusions. More research has to be done to determine if there are any true benefits. Nonetheless, the results of the study are very interesting. According to MSNBC, all nine of the patients studied had some degree of relief, lasting up to 24 hours in some of the participants.

According to the article:

Currently, there is no treatment that eases symptoms of the disorder as fast as psilocybin appears to, Moreno said. Other drugs take several weeks to show an effect, but the psilocybin was almost immediate.

These results are simply amazing and I can not wait to see what further studies will show. If FDA-approval (and the staggering amount of bureaucracy and paperwork that comes with it) were not necessary for such studies, we may have a cure for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by now. More people would want to learn about that effects of the drug if it were actually legal to use. I know that when people push for laws that make these substances illegal they think they are helping others, but there are always unintended consequences. When the effects of a drug can not be studied, possible benefits from those drugs will never be found. LSD, for example, has been shown to be a possible cure for alcoholism. In that study, alcoholics who took one hit of LSD have been sober for 40 years, never consuming either drug again. We may never know the true benefits of these substances unless they are made legal.

According to a recent article on Reuters, there has been a push for FDA safety reforms:

Editors at a major medical journal and members of a drug-safety advisory panel joined calls on Monday for major changes to improve the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of medicines on the market.

If you read the article it is obvious that these ‘professionals’ want more laws giving the FDA more power and more money to regulate the food and drug industries. If these so-called professionals were really worried about the health and safety of the American people they would allow the free-market regulate these industries. If a privately owned organization provided ratings for foods, for instance, they would be held responsible for making bad decisions. The government, on the other hand, is never held responsible for mistakes they make.

As far as drugs go, they should all be sold over the counter and the drug war should be ended immediately. As a consumer, you should be responsible for what you put into your own body. If you believe you know what drug you need then you should be able to purchase it on your own, without the need of a prescription from a doctor. The current FDA regulations require that the drug companies shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their drugs tested and approved. Without these regulations, drugs would become significantly cheaper and new companies could be started in order to compete with the current monopolies. Presently, it is almost impossible for new companies to raise enough money to get their drugs approved.

All laws restricting the possesion and use of any drug should be legalized. Once again (and I can not stress this enough), it is each persons individual right to do whatever they please to their own body. Any law restricting this is a direct violation our natural rights. I know that a lot of people think ‘I am not a drug user so this doesn’t affect me’, but you could not be farther from the truth. Drug related crimes are a direct effect of the war on drugs. If drugs were legalized there would be no black market and no drug related crime. If you look back at the prohibition of alcohol there were gangsters that sold alcohol to the people who wanted it. When there is a product that is in demand, the market will provide for it whether it is illegal or not. When the product is illegal however, the black market creates a culture of violence around that product. This is why there should be no laws that restrict the freedoms of the American people. No. Scratch that. There should be no laws in this country that restrict the freedoms of any human being.