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The Beckley Foundation: Working at the Frontiers of Research 32 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i i n u m b e r 1 • s p r i n g ~ s u m m e r 2 o o 7 The Beckley Foundation: Working at the Frontiers of Research INCE NITROUS OXIDE WAS FIRST DISCOVERED by the Englishman Joseph Priestley in 1773 the United Kingdom Shas had a knack for producing explorers at the frontiers of consciousness. It comes as no surprise then that Aldous Huxley and Humphrey Osmond, who pitted their poetic wits against each other to coin the term ‘psychedelic,’ likewise hailed from www.beckleyfoundation.org England. In keeping with this tradition the U.K. is also home to Amanda Feilding, whose brainchild is the Beckley Foundation, which she directs from its headquarters at Beckley Park in Oxford. The foundation’s two main aims reflect its founder’s interests, namely to investigate consciousness and its altered states and simultaneously to tackle the growing dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of global drug policies. As a charitable trust the Beckley Foundation promotes the scientific investigation of the physiological and neural correlates underlying consciousness and its altered states. Feilding feels that since we live in a scientific age it is essential to have a scientific explanation of what underpins changing states of awareness; only then can we better integrate the use of altered states responsibly into our social fabric. The study of conscious- ness is still in its infancy – however the 21st century is being heralded as the century of neuroscience. LSD and other psychedelics provide invaluable tools with which to study the brain and the mind, and it has long been Feilding’s wish to over- come the invisible barriers formed by the current international drug policies, which obstruct the use of such potentially valuable molecules in the advancement of neuroscience. m a p s • v o l u m e x v i i n u m b e r 1 • s p r i n g ~ s u m m e r 2 o o 7 33 The study of psychedelics forms only of the blood supply to the brain and loss of a part of the foundation’s wider remit of cerebrospinal fluid mobility, which occurs promoting research into different states of in the process of ageing, and methods to awareness, whether brought about by counteract it. meditation or breath control; chanting; or The Beckley Foundation has a highly the ingestion of psychoactive substances. distinguished board of scientific advisors. The research carefully measures changes This includes Professor-Doctor Albert in subjective experience and also utilizes Hofmann, Professors Colin Blakemore state-of-the-art monitoring technology, (chief executive of the Medical Research from neuroimaging with EEG and MEG, Council), David Nutt (professor of psy- to measuring changes in cerebral fluid chopharmacology at the University of dynamics and neurotransmitter activity Bristol), and David Nichols (professor of with Transcranial Doppler and MRI. medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at After years of hard work the efforts of Purdue University), among other notable the foundation are beginning to reap scientists. rewards on both fronts - consciousness Aside from its consciousness research research and drug policy. Most signifi- the foundation has also had recent suc- cantly, the first study of LSD with human cesses with the other arm of its operations subjects since prohibition blocked all in helping to guide drug policy toward a research in the 1970s has recently been more rational, evidenced-based approach. granted full ethical approval and now has One such outcome was the recent publica- the green light to proceed. This resump- tion of the “scale of harm” article in the tion of LSD research after such a long Lancet (beckleyfoundation.org/bib/doc/bf/ hiatus is an enormous landmark in both 2007_David_211305_1.pdf). The psychedelic neuroscience and the groundbreaking article ranks 20 com- foundation’s achievements, opening the monly used psychoactive drugs, both doors for much fruitful research in the illegal and legal, along a scale of relative David Luke future. harms, based upon ratings by an array of [email protected] Other research programs being experts. Out of these, alcohol was ranked undertaken by the foundation include a the fifth most dangerous, tobacco ninth, cannabis study to investigate changes in cannabis 11th, LSD 14th, and ecstasy the cerebral blood supply and in neu- 18th. The report also highlights the sur- rotransmitter and electrical activity that prising statistic that alcohol and tobacco underlie the “high” experienced when together are responsible for 90 percent of smoking cannabis. In a different vein, the all drug-related deaths in the U.K. neural correlates of advanced meditative One catalyst for this rational, harm- states are also being investigated. A pilot based approach to classification began study that has already been conducted with discussions at Beckley Park between was the first to use MEG to study the Feilding and Blakemore, who co-authored effects of meditation on brain function. the Lancet paper with Nutt. Blakemore The study found a marked increase in gave his initial presentation of the new synchronous power within the gamma scale of harm at a conference organised by frequency range, particularly in the right the Beckley Foundation in collaboration cerebellum, during the same period as the with the U.K. Cabinet Office Strategy Unit meditator had the experience of “oneness” in July 2003. The paper was updated and and light. The gamma increase in the re-presented at the Beckley Foundation cerebellum was of a magnitude greater seminar: Global Drug Policy – Future than had ever been reported in any other Directions, which was held in 2004 at the MEG study. Several other research House of Lords, Westminster Palace. It has projects are also in development, includ- since had a considerable influence in ing work with the renowned Russian guiding a new approach to the vast scientist, Academician Yuri E. ongoing problem of what is the best way Moskalenko, a pioneer in the investiga- to control and regulate society’s growing tion of cerebral blood and cerebrospinal appetite for psychoactive substances. This fluid dynamics. Among other things, this led the way for a U.K. Parliamentary Select program is investigating the diminution Committee to conclude in 2006 that, “the 34 m a p s • v o l u m e x v i i n u m b e r 1 • s p r i n g ~ s u m m e r 2 o o 7 current classification system is not fit for tions and professional networks to assist purpose and should be replaced with a policy-makers in making better-informed more scientifically-based scale of harm” decisions. Through this network the (beckleyfoundation.org/bib/doc/bf/ Beckley is associated with more than 25 2006_House_211226_1.pdf). Other national governments as well as interna- European Union governments are follow- tional bodies such as the EU and the UN. ing this lead. Further to its unique role in hosting For the last six years the Beckley top-level policy seminars and forums, the Foundation has brought together top Beckley Foundation Drug Policy international experts from the fields of Programme also recognizes the need for neuroscience, health, education, law credible reference materials. In response enforcement, and policy-making to to this, it has so far produced more than analyse and explore the scientific, social, 20 much-cited academic reports and health, and political implications of the briefing papers, which are disseminated to latest evidence, in an atmosphere conge- academics and policy-makers around the nial to free communication. These semi- world (beckleyfoundation.org/policy/ nars are attended by U.K. government reports.html). ministers, top representatives of the EU The real strength of Beckley’s ap- and the United Nations, and individuals proach is that it works with the establish- such as the chairman of the Russian ment in bringing together the highest Federation Drugs Commission and the calibre of scientists, policy analysts, chairman of the European Union Chiefs of policy-makers, and other academics to Police. Such forums have considerably combine their expertise both in research opened up the discussion on drug policy into a better understanding of conscious- and have enabled the Beckley Foundation ness and its altered states, and on careful to catalyze the adoption of a more realistic analysis of how society might more approach to drug use and classification by successfully regulate and control those the British government. substances that alter consciousness - As an extension of the Beckley substances for which society appears to Foundation’s aim to help governments have an unappeasable appetite. The rationally evaluate drug policy, it has also foundation aims to continue working founded two independent bodies: the toward these important goals and hopes International Society for the Study of that others will come to share in its future Drug Policy (issdp.org), which creates a successes in extending the frontiers of forum for influential academics from research and policy. • around the world to collaborate and evaluate the effectiveness of different drug ©David Luke 2007 policies, and the International Drug Policy Consortium (idpc.info), which provides a platform for nongovernmental organiza-.
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