As scientists probe possible benefits in therapy, some local laws on psychedelics have been eased.
“It’s not that it’s an overnight panacea or miracle, but it certainly was far more effective than anything we had tried to date,” said Amber Capone, who had been preparing to leave her husband, Marcus, before he underwent treatment in Mexico with the psychoactive substance ibogaine. The couple have founded a nonprofit, Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, that helps veterans get such therapies abroad.
In Santa Monica, Dr. Keith Heinzerling has long wondered about those crucial moments that people talk about in Alcoholics Anonymous. One of the latest studies, which recruited participants with alcohol use disorder, sought to gauge the safety and tolerability of playing a video — with classical music trickling over majestic scenes of butterfly wings, mountain ridges and waterfalls — to ease patients into the experience before they cover their eyes.
At one point, she saw her own children, connected to her with long, black umbilical cords; at another, she opened her mouth, and incandescent light poured out of her like a bulb as the message “No one is angry at you” resounded. She saw her mother, shrouded in a dark covering of wraiths, bones and melting faces, and felt her overwhelming grief.