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Thanks everyone for a fun (and thoughtful of course) night!  There were a lot of questions that came up tonight that we didn't even think of before, so there are also a lot of questions that we came up with that the class never got to.  I'll post the discussion questions that I had in mind here in case they spark any additional comments/discussion.  And here's what you really all want, the link to the party mouse page:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/drugs/mouse.cfm

So the first topic/set of discussion questions:

Based on an article about ecstasy for PTSD as relevant to veterans:

http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2832

Currently there are over 25 million veterans and there are more overseas.  It's been projected that we can expect over 300,000 new cases of PTSD within the returning population of veterans, and the cost of treatment and lost revenue has been estimated for these PTSD cases to be $600 billion.  This information highlights Earl's question of how likely do you think is it that these drugs will be effective and used in the future therapeutically?  It seems that a drastic increase in the number of PTSD cases will highlight a need for treatment options.  Additionally, a quote from the veterans PTSD article brings into question the ethics of the policy preventing research: "It is inconsistent with traditional medical ethics or outright unethical to block treatment development and research based on drug policy."  This in light of the incidence of PTSD leads to a number of questions...

     Should we prioritize MDMA research due to the number of returning veterans?

     Should drug policy play a role in this potential research?

     Do you feel that it is unethical for the same institutions responsible for sending troops overseas are the same institutions preventing research into potential treatment options for these veterans?

     If shown to be effective, should MDMA therapy sessions be offered to all returning veterans?

     If you feel MDMA treatment options should be offered to veterans, do you feel that MDMA treatment options should be offered to civilians with PTSD?

     At what point should MDMA treatment options be offered to someone with PTSD?  Only after other (consistently ineffective) methods are tried extensively?  As the primary treatment option offered?

And the second topic/set of questions:

Other uses for these drugs...

     Given the mental changes that one experiences under the influence of the drugs that we talked about, what is the potential for use of these drugs in other settings?  For example, would a business corporation be more productive if they promoted "mental diversity" once a month by taking LSD together and thinking about the company and their work creatively?

     Do these drugs promote mental diversity?

     If so, to what extent should we promote use of these drugs beyond the therapeutic setting?  What other problems does this bring up (besides the obvious legal issues).

So those are just some questions to consider in addition to all the great questions that came up in class!

Thanks again!

-Liz