HEADACHES FUEL REVIVAL OF HALLUCINOGENIC MEDICINE

Doctors Look At Magic Mushrooms And LSD As Possible Cures For A 'Terrible
Affliction,' Writes Sharon Kirkey.

The pain strikes without warning in the middle of the night, an explosive
shot of pain on one side of Doug Wright's head that feels "like a red hot
poker suddenly stuck through my eye."

He bolts from bed. He can't lie down, he can't sit still; he paces and
moves, and if he can't abort the headache instantly by inhaling high-dose,
high-flow oxygen from the tank he keeps in his house, he drops to his
knees, screaming in agony. Twice he has blacked out from the pain.

Mr. Wright, who turns 49 this year, has suffered from cluster headaches for
30 years. His are "episodic": Three to five headaches per day, for eight to
10 weeks' duration at a time. "Chronics" experience one to five headaches
every day, day in and day out.

"One of the old terms, if you go into medical sites for cluster headaches,
is 'suicide headaches.' " Mr. Wright treats his using oxygen therapy and
medicines that constrict the blood-vessel walls in his head. Psilocybin --
the key ingredient in "magic" mushrooms -- could be next.

"Let me state up front that I have not tried this treatment, yet, myself.
It's illegal. The last thing I want is some person banging on my door,
questioning what I'm doing, or what's going on," the Nanaimo, B.C.,
chiropractor says.

But, as Harvard University doctors prepare to test the hallucinogenic
fungus, as well as LSD, against cluster headaches, Mr. Wright hopes to be
involved. "I'm hoping that when the study comes up, I'll be in cycle, and
I'll be down there," in Boston. "I'd like to participate, particularly if
we can do it in a controlled, laboratory manner."

Decades after another Harvard alumnus proselytized the healing powers of
hallucinogens, research into psychedelic medicine is experiencing a
re-awakening.

But Timothy Leary wasn't advocating pain control: He pushed psychedelics as
the path to enlightenment.

Today, hallucinogens are on a path to redemption, with a small group of
researchers studying LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA (the drug used to make
ecstasy) and even ibogaine, a psychoactive derived from the root bark of an
African plant, as treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder,
obsessive-compulsive behaviours, drug and alcohol addiction and anxiety and
physical pain from terminal cancer. "It may not be long before doctors are
legally prescribing hallucinogens for the first time in decades," a recent
article in New Scientist magazine predicted.

In addition to testing LSD and psilocybin for cluster headaches,
researchers at Harvard University won U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approval in December to test MDMA-assisted psychotherapy on eight people
with advanced cancer.

MDMA, or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine -- street-named ecstasy, Adam,
XTC, hug, beans and love drug, according to the U.S. National Institute on
Drug Abuse -- is a psychoactive. Studies on animals suggest it works on
serotonin, the brain chemical that regulates mood and sensitivity to pain.

The work is being partly funded by MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies based in Sarasota, Florida, whose mission is to
support scientific research "designed to develop psychedelics and marijuana
into FDA-approved prescription medicines, and to educate the public
honestly about the risks and benefits of these drugs," according to its
website. MAPS is supporting a preliminary study at the Iboga Therapy House
near Vancouver to test ibogaine (which is not a controlled substance) in
treating cocaine, crack, alcohol and other chemical addictions.

Anecdotal and case reports suggest magic mushrooms or LSD may not only
reduce pain from cluster headaches, but also stop the cycling course of
attacks. According to Dr. John Halpern, an instructor in psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School who is heading the LSD/psilocybin cluster-headaches
study, no conventional medications exist that can do that.

In Canada, the non-profit Organization for Understanding Cluster Headache
(OUCH) Canada, which Mr. Wright helped found, is disseminating information
and links to the studies on its website (www.clusterheadaches.ca)

"There are, I'm sure, medical doctors (in Canada) who are monitoring it and
waiting to see the outcome of the trials," Mr. Wright says. "This is a
terrible affliction. We're looking for some way to end our pain."