Doctors today said that LSD could be used to remove depression and treat cancer. Magic mushrooms and ketamine could also be a part of the ‘psychedelic psychotherapy’ cabinet. These are horse tranquillisers turned ‘party drug’.

Advances in our understanding of the brain and of the drugs themselves have made it possible to look beyond the negative effects of the substances and investigate the benefits to people with hard-to-treat conditions, said Swiss experts.

Researchers of the University of Zurich said, “The drugs could be used as catalyst in helping patients to alter their perception of problems or pain levels.”

Dr Franz Vollenweider, who published a paper on the issue in Nature Neuroscience journal said, “Psychedelics can give patients a new perspective - particularly when things like suppressed memories come up - and then they can work with that experience.”

Trials on LSD suggest that it helps sufferers of cancer and other terminal illnesses come to terms with their fate. LSD was banned around the world since the Sixties and Seventies.