Sarah, Many of us think that instead of full legalization it would be safer and more viable to decriminalize them including for sharing and group use. And allowing facilitators to be compensated for harm reduction.
While this wouldn't address all possible issues it would mean they couldn't be marketed and sold in dispensaries and other outlets. It would also mean that education and information could be freely shared including about which groups/individuals were engaged in best practices and those that may be creating harm.
I think it’s obviously better if people have the option to do psychedelics in relatively safe conditions with legally assured standards. I wouldn’t necessarily go out campaigning for that because I think psychedelics inevitably involve some risk. So I’m not entirely sure on that question - safe conditions good, but not sure if legalisation increases total demand and therefore increases the small percentage who experience harms.
Psychedelics are FAR FAR safer than alcohol. Once I started to have experience with these various substances (I never did drugs or alcohol till 43) I was utterly shocked that alcohol was normalized and psychedelics and cannabis have been demonized. Psychedelics need to be fully legal not just in “professional” settings or distribution that will only empower and enrich the corporations. People of all walks of life have been having positive relationships with these substances for centuries despite their being illegal in recent decades that has only increased risk.
Psychedelics are physically safer. Not sure they are psychologically safer….people have had very frightening, life-destroying negative experiences with psychedelics.
Yes, true. I acknowledge that. (My experience with ayahuasca is not one I’ll be repeating, mushrooms are my psychedelic of choice)
Responsible and wise use is import for sure. I’d argue that having these illegal has made it harder to be wise and responsible in their usage. There are also studies profiling the various types of harm/risks for the various substances on offer. Psychedelics are significantly safer across the board than alcohol, but again, yes that doesn’t mean everyone should partake and had they been normalized all these years I think we’d all be MUCH more well informed (regardless of one’s choice to try them or not) about what the actual risks are and what wise and responsible use looks like. Unfortunately because of the schedule 1 demonization that wisdom hasn’t become common among us.
We are all informed about the risks of smoking and drinking, though, and people still do these things. Maybe it’s because these substances are addictive, though. We don’t know the content of our psyche and sometimes we don’t know the depths of our trauma, so it’s hard to be well informed about psychedelics in some regards.
I’ve had my most challenging experience with smoked DMT, but have had horrific Ayahuasca ones too. I see them as a cleansing (a colonic irrigation for the mind) and they have taught me some stuff too. I’m getting much more pleasant aya experiences these days. But I had to go through about 15 ceremonies to get to this point.
But for people who want to simply gain relief from mental illness, I think it might be really hard to go through a horrific session or two to get there, especially if they don’t expect to face horror. And it seems that people can get stuck in an even worse place than they started, sometimes, without the appropriate resources. Partly, I think this is because psychedelics have been glorified in reports of research outcomes and the potential challenging effects not discussed enough. The one exception seems to be Iboga and ibogaine: heroin addicts know they have to go through hell to break the addiction. And they are willing if they take the drug. (I had Iboga twice and it was no worse than Ayahuascha for me; better than some trips and much better than the DMT. But I’m not addicted to opiates).
We should be selling all psychedelics in the way Ibogaine is sold to heroin addicts, to prepare people: ‘are you willing to go through hell for several hours to break free of depression?’, we should be asking.
I’m just listening to ‘LSD and the Mind of the Universe’. The author points out that one has to be very grounded to get through some experiences, and to get the best from them. My husband is very grounded with no history of mental illness and he has had some incredible ego death and other experiences that he just finds interesting on psychedelics…. People who are interested in psychedelics aren’t usually like my husband or the author of ‘LSD and the mind of the universe’, though. I think if they were legalised more people might use them as a way of escaping daily challenges, and they might instead come face to face with their own psyche, which might not be too pleasant, and they might not be ready!
What a weird picture to start your article...Burning Man as a psychedelic retreat? Er...perhaps you want to feed the AI some better instructions? Truly unable to read what you wrote when it starts with such a faulty premise.
Do you mean the photo with people’s hands in the air? I wouldn’t have known it came from Burning Man. I’ve seen Aubery Marcus’s Burning Man video, and that looked quite different!!
Sarah, Many of us think that instead of full legalization it would be safer and more viable to decriminalize them including for sharing and group use. And allowing facilitators to be compensated for harm reduction.
While this wouldn't address all possible issues it would mean they couldn't be marketed and sold in dispensaries and other outlets. It would also mean that education and information could be freely shared including about which groups/individuals were engaged in best practices and those that may be creating harm.
Thanks for this important article. Do you think that legalising all psychedelics would make a difference?
I think it’s obviously better if people have the option to do psychedelics in relatively safe conditions with legally assured standards. I wouldn’t necessarily go out campaigning for that because I think psychedelics inevitably involve some risk. So I’m not entirely sure on that question - safe conditions good, but not sure if legalisation increases total demand and therefore increases the small percentage who experience harms.
Yes it’s complex…. I agree with you. Maybe legalisation for use in professional contexts only.
Psychedelics are FAR FAR safer than alcohol. Once I started to have experience with these various substances (I never did drugs or alcohol till 43) I was utterly shocked that alcohol was normalized and psychedelics and cannabis have been demonized. Psychedelics need to be fully legal not just in “professional” settings or distribution that will only empower and enrich the corporations. People of all walks of life have been having positive relationships with these substances for centuries despite their being illegal in recent decades that has only increased risk.
Psychedelics are physically safer. Not sure they are psychologically safer….people have had very frightening, life-destroying negative experiences with psychedelics.
Yes, true. I acknowledge that. (My experience with ayahuasca is not one I’ll be repeating, mushrooms are my psychedelic of choice)
Responsible and wise use is import for sure. I’d argue that having these illegal has made it harder to be wise and responsible in their usage. There are also studies profiling the various types of harm/risks for the various substances on offer. Psychedelics are significantly safer across the board than alcohol, but again, yes that doesn’t mean everyone should partake and had they been normalized all these years I think we’d all be MUCH more well informed (regardless of one’s choice to try them or not) about what the actual risks are and what wise and responsible use looks like. Unfortunately because of the schedule 1 demonization that wisdom hasn’t become common among us.
We are all informed about the risks of smoking and drinking, though, and people still do these things. Maybe it’s because these substances are addictive, though. We don’t know the content of our psyche and sometimes we don’t know the depths of our trauma, so it’s hard to be well informed about psychedelics in some regards.
I’ve had my most challenging experience with smoked DMT, but have had horrific Ayahuasca ones too. I see them as a cleansing (a colonic irrigation for the mind) and they have taught me some stuff too. I’m getting much more pleasant aya experiences these days. But I had to go through about 15 ceremonies to get to this point.
But for people who want to simply gain relief from mental illness, I think it might be really hard to go through a horrific session or two to get there, especially if they don’t expect to face horror. And it seems that people can get stuck in an even worse place than they started, sometimes, without the appropriate resources. Partly, I think this is because psychedelics have been glorified in reports of research outcomes and the potential challenging effects not discussed enough. The one exception seems to be Iboga and ibogaine: heroin addicts know they have to go through hell to break the addiction. And they are willing if they take the drug. (I had Iboga twice and it was no worse than Ayahuascha for me; better than some trips and much better than the DMT. But I’m not addicted to opiates).
We should be selling all psychedelics in the way Ibogaine is sold to heroin addicts, to prepare people: ‘are you willing to go through hell for several hours to break free of depression?’, we should be asking.
I’m just listening to ‘LSD and the Mind of the Universe’. The author points out that one has to be very grounded to get through some experiences, and to get the best from them. My husband is very grounded with no history of mental illness and he has had some incredible ego death and other experiences that he just finds interesting on psychedelics…. People who are interested in psychedelics aren’t usually like my husband or the author of ‘LSD and the mind of the universe’, though. I think if they were legalised more people might use them as a way of escaping daily challenges, and they might instead come face to face with their own psyche, which might not be too pleasant, and they might not be ready!
If alcohol is to remain legal there’s absolutely no solid argument for psychedelics to be illegal at all.
Taxes!
What a weird picture to start your article...Burning Man as a psychedelic retreat? Er...perhaps you want to feed the AI some better instructions? Truly unable to read what you wrote when it starts with such a faulty premise.
Thanks really sad to lose your readership
Do you mean the photo with people’s hands in the air? I wouldn’t have known it came from Burning Man. I’ve seen Aubery Marcus’s Burning Man video, and that looked quite different!!