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Comment by michaelbrave | Hacker News Reader

I've heard it has a lot of promise in treating depression, decriminalization would allow for official medical studies.

Ketamine is schedule III in the US. That makes it less restricted than meds like adderall and most prescription opiates. Decriminalizing it wouldn't really matter for research studies.

It would really matter a lot for someone who got caught with a small amount of it, tho

Yes and that's a good thing, but I was responding to the claim that, "...decriminalization would allow for official medical studies."

Ah, that would explain it.

I was recently surprised to learn about how big of an industry already exists around ketamine therapy. A search in your area (if in the US) would likely turn up several clinics nearby.

Bay Area: https://bit.ly/2S3VNjW Austin: https://bit.ly/3ccj2zk

Oh awesome. I'm in ATX and have treatment-resistant depression (tried 15 meds) likely from chronic sleep deprivation (sleep apnea).

If anyone knows a dope (no pun intended) psychiatrist for general purposes in ATX, I could use contact info.

again, if drugs is what you need to "treat" depression then you probably have a much bigger problem in life that needs to be addressed rather than looking for another band-aid. depression is not some random disease you catch like a bad cold, it stems from personal or systemic issues that will only continue to feed into said depression until fixed.

Perhaps you should bring it up with psychiatrists prescribing people antidepressant drugs then? They will surely benefit of your expertise.

You might not be familiar with the mechanics of depression.

Can you imagine how idiotic someone would sound if they were saying that about type 1 diabetes, or maybe schizophrenia?

Robin Williams lived a pretty pleasant life, but he died of depression. If Robin Freaking Williams couldn't beat it, what chance do the rest of us have for successful self-treatment?

It -can- be messed up brain chemistry despite what all the "only therapy helps" folks who are out to make a buck and prevent people from at least trying it.

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