A newly published study examining the use of psychedelics in non-clinical settings to treat alcoholism is suggesting a great number of individuals see a reduction in problematic alcohol consumption following strong doses of LSD or psilocybin. The research supplements a compelling body of evidence revealing the intriguing anti-addiction potential of classic psychedelics, and rekindles interest in a strong vein of research from the 1950s and 1960s.
Before LSD escaped the laboratory to hit the streets and become a generation-defining recreational drug in the 1960s, it was the focus of an impressive volume of medical research in the 1950s. By the time the drug was ultimately criminalized and declared taboo in legitimate research circles over the 1970s, it is estimated more than 40,000 patients had been treated with it in clinical settings, and more than 1,000 research papers had been published.