Beckley Foundation

File:Beckley Foundation Logo.jpg

The Beckley Foundation

The Beckley Foundation is a charitable trust that promotes health orientated cost effective harm reductive drug policy reform. It also investigates consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective working in collaboration with scientists. The Foundation is based at Beckley Park near Oxford, United Kingdom. The Beckley Foundation was founded in 1998, and is directed, by Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss.

Background

Founded by Amanda Feilding in 1998, the foundation supports research into the science, health, politics and history of practices used to alter consciousness, ranging from meditation to the use of psychoactive substances. Its activities include directing scientific research programmes and hosting high level international drug policy seminars. It has produced over thirty-five much cited drug policy reports and is at the forefront of national and international drug policy reform. It is currently organizing the Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform in close association with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform. For this initiative it has commissioned the first ever cost/benefit analysis on a legal regulated cannabis market and a new Draft UN Convention for All Illegal Drugs. On 17 November 2011 a meeting at the House of Lords took place at which Heads of State and ministers of countries interested in reform participated. The Beckley Foundation is particularly interested in scientific research that has practical implications in improving health and wellbeing. Current research includes a collaboration with Professor Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins University studying the effects of psilocybin at combating addiction.

Policy

The Beckley Foundation's policy initiatives include:

• The commissioning, publication and distribution of reports and briefing papers on international drug policy issues.
• The hosting of policy-focused seminars that bring together policymakers, academics and practitioners to discuss international drug policy issues.
• The establishment of Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), consisting of a network of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and professional networks from around the world.
• The establishment of an International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP), a group of academic experts from around the world who have produced notable work on the subject of drug policy evaluation and other relevant issues.

Global Initiative for Drug Policy Reform 2011-12

The Global Initiative is a collaboration between the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy, the Global Commission on Drug Policy and the Beckley Foundation. It advocates the UK denouncing and re-affirming with reservations the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the UN Single Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

Report and Public Letter 2011-12

The Beckley Foundation published an open letter in The Time and Guardian calling for a new approach to drug policy. The letter opens by emphatically stating that the war on drugs has failed, and calls members of the public and parliament to recognise this by adding there signature. Signatories of the letter include former Presidents of the United States, Mexico, Colombia, and Switzerland as well as Nobel Peace Prize winners and leading Scientists in a variety of fields.

Beckley Foundation Press Publications

The Beckley Foundation Press was created to allow the publication of Drug Policy and Scientific material that was not being picked up by mainstream publishing houses due to the controversial nature of the material.

• Cannabis Policy: Moving beyond a stalemate

Authors: Robin Room, Benedikt Fischer, Wayne Hall, Simon Lenton and Peter Reuter Convened by Amanda Feilding Oxford University Press (2010). ISBN 978–0–19–958148–1, 2010

• The Pharmacology of LSD

Annelie Hintzen M.D. and Torsten Passie M.D., M.A. Paperback: App 200 pages Publisher: The Beckley Foundation Press and Oxford University Press (June 2010) ISBN 978-0199589821

• Hoffmann’s Elixir: LSD and the new Eleusis

Edited by Amanda Feilding Talks & Essays by Albert Hofmann and others Beckley Foundation Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-9548054-9-4 ©2008 The Beckley Foundation

• Moskalenko Monograph

• Non-Invasive Evaluation of Human Brain Fluid Dynamics and Skull Biomechanics in Relation to Cognitive Functioning

Yuri Moskalenko, Amanda Feilding and Peter Halvorson Beckley Foundation Press ISBN 978-1-907072-01-7

Scientific Publications

Neural substrates of the psychedelic state: Functional MRI studies with psilocybin

PNAS 2012 109 (6) 2138-2143; published ahead of print January 23, 2012, Robin L. Carhart-Harris, David Erritzoea, Tim Williams, James M. Stone, Laurence J. Reed, Alessandro Colasantia, Robin J. Tyack, Robert Leech, Andrea L. Malizia, Kevin Murphy, Peter Hobden, John Evans, Amanda Feilding, Richard G. Wise, and David J. Nutta

Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study BJP bjp.bp.111.103309; published ahead of print January 26, 2012, R. L. Carhart-Harris, R. Leech, T. M. Williams, D. Erritzoe, N. Abbasi, T. Bargiotas, P. Hobden, D. J. Sharp, J. Evans, A. Feilding, R. G. Wise and D. J. Nutt

Investigating the Interaction between Schizotypy, Divergent Thinking and Cannabis Use Conscious Cogn. 2012 Mar;21(1):292-8. Epub 2012 Jan 9. Corresponding Author: Ms Grainne Schafer Amanda Feilding; Maria Agathangelou, BSc Psychology; Celia J A Morgan, PhD; Tom P Freeman, BSc; H. Valerie Curran, PhD

Neurophysiological correlates to psychological trait variables in experienced meditative practitioners Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality, 2011, Volume 1, 129-155, DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-2079-4_10 Thilo Hinterberger, Niko Kohls, Tsutomu Kamei, Amanda Feilding, Harald Walach

Communication breakdown: delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol effects on pre-speech neural coherence Mol Psychiatry. 2011 Nov 1. doi: 10.1038/mp.2011.141. Stone JM, Morrison PD, Brugger S, Nottage J, Bhattacharyya S, Sumich A, Wilson D, Tunstall N, Feilding A, Brenneisen R, McGuire P, Murray RM, Ffytche DH.

Proceeding Documents

• Proceeding Documents

• Drugs and the Brain • The Role of Drugs in Society • An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Alcohol and Other Recreational Drugs • Global Drug Policy – Future Directions • Beckley Foundation Global Drug Policy Seminar 2005 • Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Seminar – UNGASS and the Contribution of Civil Society • The Global Cannabis Commission Report Launch & Assessing International Drug Control- Preparations for UNGASS 2008

Major Seminars

• "Drugs and the Brain", Magdalen College, Oxford (2002).
• "The Role of Drugs in Society", Royal Society, (2003).
• "An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Alcohol and other Recreational Drugs", Cabinet Office, Admiralty Arch (2003).
• "Global Drug Policy - Future Directions", Westminster Palace, (2004)
• International Drug Policy Seminar 2005), House of Lords, Westminster Palace. A three day seminar including the Beckley/Foresight Seminar, reviewing the Foresight Report; the meeting of the International Consortium of NGOs, and the meeting of the International Network of Drug Policy Analysis, renamed International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP).

External links

• The Beckley Foundation
• "The Beckley Foundation, Registered Charity no. SC033546". Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
• Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme
• International Drug Policy Consortium
• International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
• The Beckley Foundation online library, featuring full-text works on research in drugs.
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Science

The Beckley Foundation Science Programme aims to:

• explore the processes that underpin conscious states.
• characterise the attributes of 'normal' human consciousness and determine the changes that occur in pathologically, naturally or chemically altered states.
• evaluate the potential of techniques currently employed in the alteration of conscious states to provide therapeutic and medicinal benefits.

The research programmes initiated by the Beckley Foundation investigate changes in cerebral blood flow, electrical current and magnetic field variations underlying different states of consciousness. Other changes measured include neurotransmitter concentrations, neural immune function, cognition and mood ratings. Using sophisticated brain imaging technologies, new areas can be explored, enabling us to see further into the human brain and the workings of the mind than ever before.

The Foundation is involved in collaborative research projects with leading scientists in the fields of neurophysiology, biochemistry, psychiatry and psychology, at renowned scientific institutions in the United Kingdom and abroad. Current projects include

• The Unconscious Watershed - A neuroimaging study being carried out with University of Oxford in order to pinpoint the where and the when of conscious, as opposed to unconscious, processing in the brain.
• The Neurobiology of Meditative States - A neuroimaging study carried out with Aston University, Birmingham, using fMRI, MEG and MRS imaging techniques.
• The effects of LSD on consciousness - a study in healthy volunteers to understand how LSD affects perception and experience.
• Brain Blood Flow and Metabolic Changes Induced by Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - A neuroimaging study being carried out with Bristol University using MRI to map the cerebral blood flow and chemical neurotransmitter changes induced by different doses of orally administered THC in human volunteers.
• Physical Correlates of Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness - A neuroimaging study, still under development, looking at the effects of psychoactive substances in experienced subjects on global and regional cerebral blood flow.
• Neural Responses in Depressed Individuals - A neuroimaging study being carried out with the Institute of Psychiatry examining neural responses to emotive stimuli in healthy and psychiatric populations.
• Individual Differences in Anandamide Metabolism - A set of studies being carried out with Oxford University will clarify the relationship between anandamide and essential fatty acids in relation to trait-measures of depression, anxiety and stress.
• Motivational Assessment of Why People Use Drugs - A questionnaire study being carried out with the Institute of Psychiatry comparing 'recreational' and 'problem' young drug users.
• Nutrition and Addiction Research - A controlled trial being carried out with the University of Oxford testing the efficacy of nutritional supplements in the rehabilitation of problem drug users.