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“A Psychedelic Renaissance – Can we avoid tripping this time?” Or Who is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past

Event Date:
Monday, February 13, 2017, 7:00 pm
Location:
SDU Main Building
Room:
Main 201 -- Main Building Faculty Lounge
The PEI History of Medicine Society presents Erika Dyck, Professor of History and a Canada Research Chair in Medical History at the University of Saskatchewan. Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers have “high hopes” for their return. Are we at risk, however, of facing the same historic challenges with a new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts, or have the circumstances changed sufficiently to allow for a new path forward? The twenty-first-century incarnation of psychedelic research resurrects some anticipated hypotheses, and explores some of the same applications that clinicians experimented with fifty years ago. On the surface, then, the psychedelic renaissance might be dismissed for retreading familiar ground. A deeper look at the context that gave rise to these questions, though, suggests that, while some of the questions are common, the culture of neuroscience and the business of drug regulation have changed sufficiently to warrant a retrial. Historically, LSD and its psychedelic cousins were not simply victims of unsophisticated science; drug regulators arguably squeezed them out of legitimate existence based on assumptions about their perceived dangers, side effects, and potential for abuse. I examine the historical clinical uses of LSD in Canada, including the facility that led to the coining of the term “psychedelic,” and the infamous Hollywood Hospital that offered psychedelic treatments for addictions, to explore some of the lessons that a close reading of LSD’s past has to offer.  
Contact Name
Shannon Murray
(902) 566-0404