Drug prohibition in the UK, particularly for psychedelics, violates the fundamental right to cognitive liberty protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The paper argues that existing challenges to prohibition based on therapeutic or religious exemptions are insufficient; instead, the right to control one's own consciousness should ground a complete end to psychedelic prohibitions. This legal argument is supported by classical liberal philosophy: the state should only criminalize actions that demonstrably risk harming others. The authors recommend that drug policy activism move beyond harm reduction toward benefit maximization and consider a regulatory "third way" distinct from criminal or medical control. However, given the UK's authoritarian turn, underground movements may be the only near-term guarantor of cognitive liberty.
A systematic review of 37 studies on mantra meditation (including Transcendental Meditation) in healthy, non-clinical populations found that such interventions may have minimal to moderate beneficial effects on mental health outcomes like anxiety, stress, depression, burnout, anger, and psychological distress. Over 90% of the studies were rated as weak quality, limiting confidence in the findings. Mantra meditation might serve as a useful addition to workplace or educational wellbeing programs, but higher-quality research is needed.
Emotional exhaustion among healthcare professionals can increase medical errors and reduce patient satisfaction. This feasibility study tests whether random controlled trial methods can assess mantra meditation as a stress-reducing intervention for emergency department staff. Thirty eligible staff in the intervention group will learn mantra meditation in four 4-hour sessions over six weeks and practice 20 minutes of meditation twice daily; thirty in the passive control group will work as usual. Data on psychological wellbeing, blood pressure, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol will be collected before, after the intervention at week 11, and at follow-up at week 19. The study aims to evaluate recruitment, retention, adherence, and data management before a full trial.