Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[Doktornolittle]

I have a lot of respect for you CBD, and there may be some value to this post, but any article that promotes the use of LSD for spiritual gain without adding major caviats is, in my view, improper.

Thirty five years ago I lost a friend who went overboard with recreational drugs in the riptide between the momentum of the war machine and the complete rejection by people of draft age, of all things associated with war. Greg was probably a year too young to get drafted, but he was enveloped in the resulting culture, that lasted for many years after the Vietnam war.

His demise probably had as much to do with the excess use of amphetamines as it did with his use of LSD, but I am certain that LSD contributed. There is a special kind of burn-out that can result from the use of LSD, that can be extremely painful, psychologically, and some people do not pull a Robert Downey Jr. miracle and come out the other side unscathed.

Many users of LSD experience something very special, spiritually, ie the experience of living truely in the moment. But I believe, while knowing that such exists is a good thing, not doing LSD is an important part of a life plan to reach existence in the moment. The burnout puts people so far from where they were trying to go. It isn't having been there, it is being there, and LSD puts you farther from being there than you were before. No big surprise, that is generally how such things work.

Maybe in the proper group setting the net can be a gain. And such supportive groups do naturally form, sometimes, outside of a clinical setting. But for every person that benefits in such a supportive environment there are many more that end up twisted or burned out with little lasting positive from the experience.

LSD is an extremely powerful drug, and even Timothy Leary stated that it was not for everyone. Of course he had to put that in the form of a put-down, stating, "You don't put jet fuel in a Volkswagon brain". But I don't think it is that simple. I think that was an arrogant and irresponsible thing to say.

Looking back at my friend Greg's life... he was literally the best person I have ever known. Thirty five years later, I still think about him every day, and what I should have done to help him out of the incredible depth of depression that followed his brief era of excessive use of speed and LSD.