''Legal'' Highs

”Legal” Highs

A short but powerful video displaying the devastating consequences of legal highs.

What exactly are legal highs?

Officially described as new psychoactive substances (NPS), a legal high is a mood-altering or stimulant substance whose sale is not banned by current legislation. They are made up of various chemical ingredients and replicate a similar user experience of illegal drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine. They are extremely addictive and can have fatal side effects.

The 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act classifies illegal drugs based on their chemical composition. The chemical makeup of a legal high is slightly altered to get around this legislation thus making them legal. They can’t in fact be sold for human consumption and so are often marketed as bath salts, incense or plant food as another way to get around the law.

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Near-Death Experiences
A common motif reported during an ayahuasca ceremony: the initiate lies on the ground as their soul leaps from their body and travels through the air. Sometimes this vision occurs with their eyes closed as they survey the cosmos; other times, they look down and stare at their meat casing (as phrased in at least one translation of the Bhagavad Gita) on the ground. Regardless, “travelling” is a trademark experience of the psychedelic trip.

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Strassman also relates this phenomenon to the pineal gland. According to him, this gland becomes visible in the fetus at 49 days, which happens to be the length of time of the in-between state of souls in some Buddhist texts. This philosophy, most famously expressed in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, states that upon leaving one body during death, the soul hangs out in a liminal space (known as the Bardo) before appearing in another. Strassman continues:

“Perhaps the life force of a human enters the fetus at forty-nine days through the pineal. And it may leave the body, at death, through the pineal. This coming and going would be marked by the release of DMT by the pineal, meditating awareness of these awesome events.”

In the introduction to the WY Evans-Wentz’s translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Lama Anagarika Govinda observes that “the initiated disciple attains dominion over the realm of death, and, being able to perceive death’s illusory nature, is freed from fear. This illusoriness of death comes from the identification of the individual with his temporal, transitory form, whether physical, emotional, or mental, whence arises the mistaken notion that there exists a personal, separate ego hood of one’s own, and the fear of losing it.”

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Are they safe?

A common misconception is that the word ‘legal’ means safe but these so-called legal highs are often untested, dangerous and addictive substances with potentially fatal side effects. It has been reported by experts that the legal high Spice can be up to 100 times as potent as cannabis. The risks involved increase when taken with alcohol.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Randox Testing Services’ legal highs expert and Toxicology Manager Dr Mark Piper had this to say:

“Legal highs (or psychoactive substances) are really chemicals, they’re not drugs as such, they’re chemicals that have been purchased from the Far East and there can be anything in these materials. They are produced in labs without any form of quality control; you simply do not know what is in these packets.”

This “loss of ego” is exactly what happens during the psychedelic ritual. The brain’s regions associated with the ego are taken offline. The sense of oneness reported by Strassman’s volunteers—the sensation of being part of everything in the universe—can only occur when the limitations of the individual become apparent. The biography we cling to is only a fraction of reality. By removing anecdotes from one’s consciousness, psychedelics open you to possibilities you wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

One important note: Strassman is clear that relating DMT to the pineal gland is speculative. Another possibility is the oscillation of brain waves that occur in certain prey animals’ bodies while dying. This biologically protective measure is believed to have evolved to provide some level of comfort too, for example, a deer being devoured by lions.

Humans have only been apex predators for a very short time. The seemingly mystical state that occurs while dying could be a throwback to an era when we were much more likely to be eaten by other animals. Even if DMT is released by the pineal gland during death, this evolutionary trait could provide another reason for this phenomenon.

The Spirit Molecule
When asked why he believes people consume ayahuasca, MAPS founder Rick Doblin is clear.

“They’re looking for deeply profound spiritual experiences and a sense of connection, a sense of energy, a sense of being in touch with their own unconscious and their own deeper levels of the mind.”

As all psychedelics researchers understand, set and setting are the primary drivers of the experience. Doblin speculates that the reason so many volunteers in Strassman’s study might have seen aliens is environmental. Unlike travelling to the jungles of Peru to sit in a ceremony, they were in a hospital room surrounded by clinicians. The aliens might have been symbolic representations of their surroundings.

Regardless, Doblin points out that the dangers of ayahuasca “are primarily psychological rather than physiological,” as Strassman’s research attests.

The same goes for Charles Grob, the first American researcher granted approval to study both ayahuasca and MDMA in the nineties. His study on members of Uniao do Vegetal, who ritualistically sip the brew of the soul vine twice a month, are “very high-functioning individuals.” Psychedelics are some of the physiologically safest substances in existence.

Doblin, Grob, and Strassman all agree on one point: getting addicted to psychedelics isn’t possible. These substances don’t work in the body like opiates or antidepressants. You could become addicted to the experience of ritual, mind you, yet these plant medicines are unlikely to cause long-term damage—though, as Doblin points out, the potential for psychological harm is certainly possible.

Prevalence

In 2014 there were 140 deaths reported in the UK alone. There is no doubt that legal highs are becoming more prevalent. Research is being carried out to investigate what exactly legal highs contain and how potent they are. In many cases, it’s been found that they actually do contain illegal substances.

Due to the prevalence of these drugs a proposed ‘blanket ban’ is set to be introduced across the UK. The ban will be enforced across England and Wales on 26th May 2016.

DMT has been used for centuries (and likely longer) in rituals across South America. For example, the Tukanoans created the Yurupari ceremony to initiate young boys into manhood with ayahuasca. The spiritual experience represented a rite of passage from one phase of being to the next, much like the Bardo transports souls across time.

As Ott writes, while shamanic ecstasy was the goal of these ancient rituals, today substances like DMT and ayahuasca are playing an important role in more pedestrian (but equally important) pursuits, such as depression and addiction treatment. Whereas “ecstatic experience is what reveals to us the sublime grandeur of our universe and the fluctuating, shimmering alchemical wonder that constitutes our everyday consciousness,” in our era, he predicts that “entheogens such as ayahuasca could be the appropriate medicine for hypermaterialistic humanity on the threshold of the new millennium.”

Regardless of the origins of alien visions while under the influence, Strassman sees the syncretism of DMT and Buddhism—of psychedelics and meditative practices, broadly speaking—as an important next step in our evolution. He believes these two practices complement one another well: the structured, disciplined approach of meditation combined with the wisdom of love and compassion psychonauts experience after imbibing plant medicine. Such a marriage would certainly live up to the promises of this profound “spirit molecule.”

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