BBC2 Horizon: Psychedelic Science, Thursday 27 February

Horizon: Psychedelic Science makes the case that the cold war on psychedelic research is over and the warm light of science and reason is about to shine on this subject. However, a surreal, Twin Peaks style soundtrack and bizarre images of psychiatrists staring into blue skies made the style irritating.

The term psychedelic drug was coined by Humphrey Osmond, an English psychiatrist based in Canada, who first introduced Aldous Huxley to these mind altering drugs. After an initial period of experimentation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, research came to an abrupt halt with the banning of LSD and other hallucinogens in 1966. Since then there has been a dramatic upsurge in the use of LSD and other hallucinogens on the streets and in the clubs for recreational purposes. The Internet abounds with web sites about a …