INTRODUCTION There are widespread beliefs about the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs and frequent media reports attributing fatalities to hallucinogens. This media bias was typical in the early 1970s when much attention was focused on supposed chromosome damage and birth defects in children born to mothers who had taken LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) during pregnancy. Later on, negative results of better-controlled, rigorous investigations (Muneer 1978) refuted the earlier alarmist concerns, but these received very little attention in the media. The controversial nature of the U.S. drug policy and its influence on government-sponsored research of illicit drugs has recently drawn media attention due to investigational flaws of highly publicized research claiming harmful effects (Jennings 2003).
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