Terminally ill cancer patients struggling with anxiety may get some relief from a guided "trip" on the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, a new study suggests.

The study included 12 patients who took a small dose of psilocybin — the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" — while under the supervision of trained therapists. In a separate session, the participants took a placebo pill, which had little effect on their symptoms.

By contrast, one to three months after taking psilocybin the patients reported feeling less anxious and their overall mood had improved. By the six-month mark, the group’s average score on a common scale used to measure depression had declined by 30 percent, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

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It is a draft version for a manual to create a Cannabis Social Club. All comments will be considered in the edition of the final version, that will be edited after 1st November 2010.

The idea that decriminalisation increases drug problems was already on shaky ground. Several countries and US states have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for drug possession. They do not generally have higher rates of drug use than their neighbours. The rate of cannabis use in the Netherlands, for example, is lower than in the UK, even though the Dutch decriminalised the use of cannabis in 1976. The Portuguese experience again shows that there is no necessary link between the severity of sanctions and rates of drug use. There have been some increases reported in drug use by Portuguese adults since 2001, but these are no greater than those seen in other southern European countries. More important are rates of drug use among children, as they are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of illicit drugs. In Portugal, these rates have fallen since decriminalisation.

Since spring 2010 our FREE HEMP society has presented a citizen’s legislation initiative on marihuana, being a much better proposal for resolving the cannabis problem which has been unsolvable by our government during the last decade. Meanwhile, the Marshal of the Lower Chamber of Parliament blocks our citizen’s project from proceeding. On 9th September our Supreme Court will considerate our complaint against the parliament’s speaker in this respect.

It is my firm belief that the American people, and certainly Californians, would support decriminalizing drugs and regulating drug markets, if only they knew that the drug problem in their country is much worse than in countries with more liberal policies. The problem is that Americans do know that their country has a serious drug problem, but they also believe or are convinced that in the Netherlands and other European countries the situation is even worse. This is what they have heard from their governments and drug czars.