Psychiatrist, Philosopher Debate Consciousness-Expanding Drugs

A psychiatrist and a philosophy professor renewed the debate on consciousness-expanding drugs last night. At the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, Dr. Gerald L. Klerman and Huston Smith, professor of philosophy at M.I.T., discussed whether drugs such as psilocybin can benefit mankind, and found themselves in sharp disagreement.

Klerman, who is assistant director of psychiatry for the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, enumerated the dangers (suicide, lasting psychosis, etc.) of such drugs, and said that the dangers far out-weighed the "very slight" possibility of any possitive uses.

Alpert Wrong

Scientific evidence," said Dr. Klerman, "runs counter to the claims of Richard Alpert and others that psilocybin is safe. Nor is there evidence that it can help the mentally disturbed or produce important insights for normal people."

Agreeing with Klerman that consciousness-expanding drugs are indeed dangerous, Smith said he was "cautiously optimistic" that these drugs could also prove to be beneficial. In discussing the possible benefits, he said he would proceed on the assumption that the dangers could be minimized.

Smith said that some psychiatrists believe that the drugs can be useful in psychotherapy and that present restrictions should be loosened to allow this use. Klerman argued that the present Federal Food and Drug regulations should be more stringently enforced.

Experimentation with drugs could help in studying the origin of religious beliefs, Smith said. "There might be a casual relationship between the use of drugs and religious beliefs," he said. "Use of drugs might have suggested religious ideas, that then became institutionalized."