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Psychedelic Substances

  • 03 May 2023
  • 4 min read

For Prelims: Psychedelic Substances, Psychiatry, NDPS Act 1985, Depression, Drug Trafficking.

For Mains: Psychedelic Substances and their implications.

Why in News?

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the use of Psychedelics in the clinical and research domain of Psychiatry.

What are Psychedelics?

  • About:
    • Psychedelics are a group of drugs that alter perception, mood, and thought processing while a person is still clearly conscious. Usually, the person’s insight also remains unimpaired.
    • Psychedelics are non-addictive and non-toxic. Compared to illicit drugs, psychedelics cause much less harm to the end user.
      • The two most commonly used psychedelics are d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin.
      • Less common ones include mescaline, found in the North American peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), and N,N-dimethyltryptamine, the principal component of the South American ceremonial sacrament ayahuasca.
  • Impact on Body after Consumption: Users of psychedelic substances report changes in perception, somatic experience, mood, thought processing, and entheogenic experiences:
    • Perceptual distortions most commonly include the visual domain.
      • An intriguing phenomenon called synaesthesia may occur, where the sensory modalities cross and the user may ‘hear colour’ or ‘see sounds’.
    • Somatic experiences may include the visceral, tactile, and interoceptive (body’s internal state) domains.
    • Mood changes may include elation, euphoria, anxiety, and paranoia.
    • Entheogenic experiences include transcendental spiritual experiences.
  • Issues:
    • An overdose requires cardiac monitoring and supportive management in a low-stimulus and reassuring environment.
    • Synthetic psychedelics (such as 25I-NBOMe) have been associated with acute cardiac, central nervous system, and limb ischaemia, as well as serotonin syndrome.
      • There have also been reports of death attributed directly to synthetic psychedelic use.
  • Treating Depression:
    • In November 2022, the results from a phase II psilocybin trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial found that a single 25-mg dose of psilocybin reduced Depression scores over three weeks in people with treatment-resistant depression.
    • These findings were more recently replicated in a phase IIB trial, which found that a single dose of 25 mg psilocybin improved measures of depression severity, anxiety, and functioning.

What is Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985?

  • It was enacted in 1985 and deals with drugs and their trafficking in the country.
    • The act has since been amended thrice in 1988, 2001, and 2014.
  • The Act prohibits the production, manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation & consumption of many narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, including cannabis, heroin, opium etc. The law,
    • However Bhang is not prohibited under the Act.
  • Section 20 of the NDPS Act lays out the punishment for the production, manufacture, sale, purchase, import and inter-state export of cannabis, as defined in the Act. The prescribed punishment is based on the number of drugs seized.
  • It also provides for the death penalty in some cases where a person is a repeat offender.

Source: TH

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