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| ILLUSTRATION: ADAM VOORHES |
Drugs have such a bad fame and with all the reason to it... however; what if I told you some of these drugs (psychedelic in this case) may be beneficial? and no, I am not talking about marijuana. According to Michael Pollan, on his WSJ article: "The New Science of Psychedelics", published on May 3rd, 2018, he says research show these drugs may be helpful in decreasing anxiety, alleviating depression, and lowering the chances of addiction. Kind of ironic since you would think these drugs will cause all of the above.
After conducting different experiments and trials with different kinds of people, his hypothesis proved to be right creating these drugs such as LSD to actually be beneficial to the human brain in those terms. In an experiment mentioned on the article, they talk about using a placebo.
A placebo is a pill, medicine or procedure that focuses on the psychological benefit rather than the physical one. This is almost like a white lie or hidden information that is displayed through marketing when needing to advertise a product.
Take under account coke (the soda). Is it healthy? No. Will they shout that in their ads? Not at all, they will tell you all of the good things and not mention the down sides. Essentially you are under the impression that coke is great and it' good for you. All those thoughts focus on the psychological aspect rather than the physical results.
If this were to one day become an option to the public, advertisement will definitely be one for the books. Medications, I believe, are not advertised so one kind of has to have trust on the doctor that whatever is prescribed is actually beneficial rather than harmful. This definitely is an interesting topic due to the controversy on drugs we have today.
Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-science-of-psychedelics-1525360091
Written by: Aimee Murillo
I think psychedelics are in their infancy in the medical department. There are many studies to go before we actually find a benefit for these intense drugs which completely alter the way we perceive reality. As for products like coke, soda companies don't really say if it's good or bad for you. They simply advertise it as it is so in a way soda companies are not lying to you but in a way they are. I think this is unfair but at the end of the day it's up to us to find that balance.
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