The Cavalier daily :: Tuesday, February 24, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

He pointed out that most people
using marijuana or LSD usually do
not drive. "If they do, there can be
some lack of coordination, poor
judgment of distance, and impaired
vision."

Alcohol 'Deadly'

"But half of all our road deaths
are due to alcohol," he said. "we
know half of all homicides are
related to alcohol. If these are the
parameters for comparison, then
alcohol is deadly and marijuana is
not." Alcohol is an addictive drug
and in some may lead to violence,
he said, while "the psychedelic
drugs generally do not lead to
violence. Heroin of course leads to
crime.

Drug Users

"We know among the users of
any drug there will always be some
who should be the last people to
have access to the drug," he added.
And among LSD users, "bad trips
come from people who already
have problems."

His paper states: "The people
who are a risk are already disturbed
the pre-psychotic, the gross
hysteric, the sociopathic and those
with strong depressive suicidal
ruminations. The dangers rest in
wrong selection, in absence of prolonged
good relationship between
the therapist and the patient, or the
"guide" and the "tripper" and in
the insufficient preparation for the
nature of the experience, in the
lack of supervision during the experience
itself and insufficient support
after the experience."

Psychiatric Tests

Dr. Buckman said he would not
recommend the indiscriminate use
of LSD and other related, powerful
hallucinogens; rather, he said such
drugs should never be taken without
proper selection, including
psychiatric tests to exclude any
possibility of underlying emotional
illnesses. "These drugs are unpredictable.
Even if a person has 100
good trips, there is no reason the
next one won't be a bad one."

Frequent and prolonged bombardment
of the central nervous
system with such drugs, he added,
could have an adverse, cumulative
effect which might result in lack of
motivation and a high state of
anxiety. It would pose a challenge
to the body and the psyche.

Use of powerful hallucinogens,
he explained, result in an "emotional
flooding" often occurring
in schizophrenia in which unpleasant
psychic material is frequently
brought to the surface. If too much
of this unpleasant material is raised
it results in guilt and depression and
sometimes a complete break with
reality.

Rewarding Experience

Many psychedelic expediences
can be enriching and rewarding, he
res, if they are properly set
up with trained personnel to administer
the drug. Discussing his own
research with LSD users and the
nature of the acid experience, he
said "some claim then attitudes
toward others, God and religion are
changed. They say they become
more tolerant, more loving and
speak of 'transcendental experiences'
and 'improved performances'
in creativity."

In his research paper. Dr. Buckman
cites several studies dealing
with the nature of the LSD experience
and then say: "There is some
evidence that with proper selection
and proper preparation in skilled
hands, LSD may be a useful adjunct
to psychotherapy. There is also
evidence that LSD taken casually,
without support and without selection,
may lead to prolonged untoward
reactions, and in a very
small minority, to tragedies.

Tragic Results

"Tragic of fatal results probably
occur only in persons who are
already on the borderline of normalcy.
Although many casual users
claim personality changes ...
careful ... study does not support
these claims."

Dr. Buckman mentioned one
study undertaken in a Baltimore
hospital with alcoholics who had
reached a low point in their lives.
LSD was administered to produce a
"transcendental religious experience"
to show the alcoholics that
there can be good experiences in
the world as well as bad ones.

Dr. Buckman's own research involved
patients suffering from
psychosomatic diseases. Basically,
the research will use LSD and the
drug Ritalin to induce the patients
to relive early childhood memories,
which may help in showing the
origin of the illness and its symptoms.

Such therapy has been useful in
a number of psychosomatic cases,
including migraine headaches,
bronchial asthma and other cases
where emotional and psychological
disturbances manifest themselves as
physical illnesses. Many of these
illnesses, Dr. Buckman said, are
thought to be caused by disturbing
experiences in early childhood. Dr.
Buckman's study is one of seven in
the United States authorized to use
LSD.

Useful Experiences

Other supervised hallucinogenic
experiences, Dr. Buckman noted,
might be "useful for certain groups
of people," such as "psychiatrists,
teachers, artists and people who
work with other people." LSD, he
adds, can give "insight into the
functioning of the normal and abnormal
mind" and can "give man a
chance to see what he is really
made of."