Banned around the world since the Sixties and Seventies, doctors are now saying that LSD could actually lift depression and help treat cancer!

The zany doctor’s miracle drug list also includes magic mushrooms and the horse tranquiliser ketamine.

The Swiss scientists have said that these days we know a lot more about the brain and how it works, and it may be time to look past the negative effects of some drugs and check out how they could start helping with hard-to-treat conditions.

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

Trials suggest that LSD, banned around the world since the Sixties and Seventies, helps sufferers of cancer and other terminal illnesses come to terms with their fate. It and other illegal substances also appear to act on brain circuits and chemicals involved in depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.

British experts urged people not to self-medicate, saying the drugs had been made illegal for a reason!