The One

Your consciousness is your affair, says drug crusader
* 04 January 2013 by Graham Lawton
* Magazine issue 2896. Subscribe and save
* For similar stories, visit the Interviews and Drugs and Alcohol Topic Guides
For the past 40 years Amanda Feilding has worked tirelessly to break down taboos surrounding LSD and other psychoactive drugs. Following a recent spate of research onpsychedelics and cannabis, and with mainstream opinion turning against the war on drugs, she tells Graham Lawton that she finally feels vindicated
How did you get interested in issues around drugs and drug policy?
I've always been an outsider. I grew up in an isolated house surrounded by three moats. There was no money. I left school early. It was a world of its own. I became fascinated by consciousnessbecause there was nothing much to do except mooch about and think. I had the occasional mystical experience. I studied consciousness, reading all the books I could get.
When did you encounter psychoactive drugs?
I was introduced to cannabis when I was 16. I realised the similarity to the mystical experiences I'd had - the enhancing of senses, the way it made thought more interesting. In 1965,before it became illegal, I was introduced to LSD. I thought it was extraordinary.
Why has it taken decades to make headway?
When I started this quest in 1968, no one wanted to do the research. Legally you were allowed, but no scientist wanted to, and no one funded it. So for over 30 years, when brain imaging technology was evolving, there was no research, which was a missed opportunity. Irealised in 1998 that in order to do the research that I wanted, I needed to start a foundation and get heavyweight scientists on board.
What was the big breakthrough?
In 2005 I set up a research project at the University of California in Berkeley. We got the first ethical approval in modern times to use LSD in humans. Since then, I've collaborated with institutions around the world.
In 2009, [leadingdrug researcher] David Nutt and I set up the Beckley Foundation/Imperial College Psychopharmacological Research Programme, which has carried out groundbreaking research on psilocybin and MDMA. Ourpsilocybin work suggested potential treatments for depression and other conditions, leading to a substantial grant from the Medical Research Council. The studies also demonstrate why psychedelics andMDMA can be valuable as aids to psychotherapy for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. I am also collaborating with Johns Hopkins University to investigate the treatment of addiction with psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
The Beckley Foundation also does a lot of work on drug policy. Does that interest you too?
The science is my passion, the policy work my social duty. I thinkthere's no other issue in the world that causes such suffering and which could be improved simply by rethinking. Millions of people are in jail just because they used consciousness-altering substances without causing any harm to others. I think it is an affront to human rights and dignity. What you do with your consciousness is your own business.
What policy initiatives have you worked on?
Since 1998we have published over 40 reports and briefings. In 2006 I realised that since cannabis is 80 per cent of all illegal drug use, without it, there would be no war on drugs. I commissioned the leading policy analysts to form the Global Cannabis Commission. The result was a book, Cannabis Policy: Moving beyond stalemate. The evidence shows that cannabis is a relatively harmless substance and thatdraconian policies don't suppress use. The commission recommended cautious experimentation with a strictly regulated cannabis market.
How did you feel when Colorado and Washington voted to legalise marijuana?
Wonderful! It's a big breakthrough.
You're thinking bigger than that, though, aren't you?
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