Kind of crazy that it took this long to get the ball rolling on research. I knew a shrink who was using MDMA back in 1973:
Almost immediately after Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD in the 1940s, research on psychedelic drugs took off. These consciousness-altering drugs showed promise for treating anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction, but increasing government conservatism caused a research blackout that lasted decades. Lately, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelics as possible therapeutic agents. This past spring Swiss researchers published results from the first drug trial involving LSD in more than 40 years.
Here’s the question that leads to some of the confusion. Do psychedelic drugs cause more psychosis than they cure when widely used? Anyone who has had extensive experience with psychedelic drug use will tell you that the first trip needs to be a guided tour. What happens after the event is over is a personal decision made based on lots of factors including one’s level of tolerance.