84 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
84 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
|
|
|
|
Hey all! I just read THE NATURAL MIND by Andrew Weil. Although it dealt
|
|
with ACID and MARIJUANA too much for my tastes, I typed up some EXCERPTS
|
|
that I thought you'd like.
|
|
|
|
|--########>-- H-Man --<########--|
|
|
|
|
pp. 44-46:
|
|
|
|
Retrospective studies are risky ways of framing hypotheses; they are fraught
|
|
with logical traps known to the ancients, and it is remarkable that men of
|
|
science still fall for them.
|
|
|
|
The saga of LSD and chromosomes is a case in point, for much of the evidence
|
|
was of this retrospective sort. The initial hypothesis, first reported in
|
|
1967, was based on the observation that LSD users seemed to have a higher
|
|
frequency of broken chromosomes in certain white blood cells (lymphocytes)
|
|
than "normal" persons (1). The _New England Journal of Medicine_ gave this
|
|
observation great prominence in an editorial titled, "Radiomimetic Effects
|
|
of LSD," suggesting that the drug mimicked radiation in its damaging effects
|
|
on genetic material. Evidence that was more circumstantial then appeared:
|
|
LSD was shown to affect chromosomes of cells growing in test tubes; a few
|
|
mothers who had used LSD gave birth to deformed babies. The scientific and
|
|
lay press gave all these findings front-page attention. The National
|
|
Institute of Mental Health eagerly seized upon and disseminated the new
|
|
information in a propaganda campaign against LSD. And, for a few months,
|
|
use of the drug appeared to decline.
|
|
|
|
But throughout this campaign, a number of facts were overlooked. First was
|
|
the total absence of any prospective studies supporting the hypothesis. No
|
|
one had tested the hypothesis in a legitimate way -- by looking at
|
|
chromosomes before exposure to the drug, giving the drug in a controlled
|
|
fashion, and then keeping watch on chromosomes. Second was the known fact
|
|
that many things affect chromosomal integrity, among them such common drugs
|
|
as aspirin and chlorpromazine (Thorazine) and recent viral infections. No
|
|
effort was made to control for these other factors in the clinical cases.
|
|
Third was the general problem of tissue-culture studies: cells growing in
|
|
test tubes do not behave the way cells do in the body. In addition, the
|
|
doses of LSD that caused visible changes in chromosomes of tissue-culture
|
|
cells were far higher than the doses living cells get when a person takes
|
|
an acid trip. Fourth, chromosomal breaks are seen in cells of all people;
|
|
the arguments turned on a statistical difference in frequency, not an
|
|
all-or-nothing difference, and the frequency of chromosomal breaks in
|
|
lymphocytes seems to correlate more directly with laboratory technique than
|
|
with other variables. (The technique of preparing lymphocytes to make
|
|
chromosomes visible is complicated and likely to produce factitious
|
|
changes.) Fifth, the lymphocyte is one of the only cells in which human
|
|
chromosomes can ever be seen under the microscope. Even if the changes were
|
|
real, they said nothing about the state of chromosomes in other cells (such
|
|
as reproductive cells). In fact, through the whole controversy no one
|
|
showed _why_ it was bad to have broken chromosomes in your lymphocytes. It
|
|
sounds bad, certainly, but one cannot say that it is bad without making a
|
|
number of shaky assumptions.
|
|
|
|
All of these logical flaws in the medical arguments against LSD were obvious
|
|
in 1967. They do not mean that the hypothesis should never have been
|
|
published, but surely it should not have been promoted by the medical
|
|
profession, the press, and the National Institute of Mental Health without
|
|
more thought. And it is significant that these logical flaws were first
|
|
pointed out in the _Berkeley Barb_ and other underground newspapers at least
|
|
eight months before the _New England Journal of Medicine_ voiced similar
|
|
doubts. The necessary prospective studies were not published until the end
|
|
of 1969 (2). Not surprisingly, they failed to demonstrate any relationship
|
|
between LSD use and chromosomal changes. They generated very little
|
|
national publicity.
|
|
|
|
This episode ought to be profoundly embarassing to journal editors and
|
|
government scientists. At one stroke it created an irreparable gap between
|
|
users of drugs and drug experts. Since 1968 I have not met a single user of
|
|
hallucinogens who will believe any reports of medical damage associated with
|
|
drugs, and the use of hallucinogens has never been higher.
|
|
|
|
(1) M. M. Cohen, K. Hirshhorn, W. A. Frosch, "In Vivo and in Vitro
|
|
Chromosomal Damage Induced by LSD-25," _New England Journal of Medicine_ 227
|
|
(1967), p. 1043.
|
|
|
|
(2) J. H. Tjio, W. N. Pahnke, A. A. Kurland, "LSD and Chromosomes: A
|
|
Controlled Experiment," _Journal of the American Medical Association_ 210
|
|
(1969), p. 849. For a recent review of the whole field, see N. I.
|
|
Dishotsky, W. D. Loughman, R. E. Mogar, W. R. Lipscomb, "LSD and Genetic
|
|
Damage," _Science_ 172 (30 April 1971), p. 431.
|
|
|