Editor's Note: Only the first names of OU students were printed, as they spoke candidly about their illegal drug use.
The first time Ohio University student Erin decided to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms, she and her friends spent three hours wandering around Baker University Center.
We were just riding the escalators up and down
and we went up to the fifth floor and they were playing live music she said. It was really great.
Fifty years ago, scientist Timothy Leary began studying hallucinogens at Harvard University, but after three years, his research ended and the U.S. government outlawed those drugs - leaving the effects largely unknown and perpetuating myths.
Erin is one of about 500 OU undergraduate students who self-reported they used hallucinogenic drugs, such as acid or mushrooms, in a 30-day period, according to Ohio University's 2009 Alcohol and Other Drug Survey.
Acid contains the drug lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, and mushrooms contain the drug psilocybin - both of which are drugs known to alter perception and levels of serotonin (mood enhancement) and epinephrine (adrenaline).
Hallucinogenic drugs came under scrutiny 50 years ago, when scientist Leary received an appointment to the Harvard Center for Personality Research in 1960, and experimented with LSD. Three years later, he was fired from Harvard for his controversial research methods.
Drugs such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin were outlawed in the U.S. during the late 1960s. LSD was made a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and psilocybin was put in the same category under the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971.
Schedule I drugs cannot be obtained legally for any reason, including medical and scientific research, meaning little more is known about Schedule I drugs than what was discovered in the 1960s, said Art Trese, associate professor for environmental and plant biology.
The common perception is that our society doesn't like to think about people being ... outside of normal behavior he said. So it's really easy to sell to politicians and parents and educators that these things have really potential long-term problems because they do really powerful things to the brain.
Terry Koons, associate director at the Campus Involvement Center, said most students rely on anecdotes from friends when choosing to use drugs.
They're not worried about side effects when they take a drug if they feel like it's socially acceptable
or if people in their social group have done it or say it's OK
he said.
BAD TRIPS
Though Erin said she has never had a bad trip
she has had trips that have made her behave strangely.
I just didn't know where I was or who I was
Erin said. I didn't know who my friends were ... I built a life for myself in my mind in my best friend's bedroom
just like
'Oh yeah
I live here now. Thanks for coming over
everybody.'
The bad trip is a story many people have heard in the discussion of hallucinogens, but Trese said the lack of research on these drugs makes it very difficult to know how often users have these side effects.
Opinions and anecdotes go a long way in a field where there isn't really very much study
