Great article. Harm reduction and serious education is everything.
As for manuals or pamphlets, this one is actually fantastic. Written by an elder of the field, Lisa Biebermann, who I did not know about until reading Psychedelic Candor substack (really good).
Something like this but simplified. I like how she implicates psychic control by invoking the "games" that you can play. You do need to skillfully retain some metacognitive awareness so that you don't unnecessarily amplify your own suffering into a full on tail-spin. Psychedelics are not to be trifled with, especially if people are looking to self-medicate for actually diagnosed mental health conditions. It is a strange thing too though because coming from the psychedelic rave scene, I have definitely seen a crazy amount of what would likely be deemed reckless use go totally unpunished by an individual's psyche. This stuff is so idiosyncratic and some people just have a disposition or mindset (hard to know which it is) that prevents them from falling into serious trouble psychologically on moderate to high doses of psychedelics.
hey Joseph we should talk and discuss this as I feel this misses one of the most important and significant barriers to education and preventing the harms you discuss in this piece which is criminalization.
The harms for instance 'Cassidy' experienced were not due to decriminalization but under current criminalization and the barriers in place in the current system.
I'm in the Santa Cruz area under a local deprioritization decriminalized city where I've actually witnessed more people feeling safer to ask questions, seek out harm reduction, education and support now in the past few years than ever before.
We need decriminalization first at local, state and federal levels in order to improve access to education and harm reduction and on the path towards legal access or we will have more 'Cassidy's not less.
Great article. Harm reduction and serious education is everything.
As for manuals or pamphlets, this one is actually fantastic. Written by an elder of the field, Lisa Biebermann, who I did not know about until reading Psychedelic Candor substack (really good).
http://www.luminist.org/archives/session.htm#EVASION%20GAMES.
Something like this but simplified. I like how she implicates psychic control by invoking the "games" that you can play. You do need to skillfully retain some metacognitive awareness so that you don't unnecessarily amplify your own suffering into a full on tail-spin. Psychedelics are not to be trifled with, especially if people are looking to self-medicate for actually diagnosed mental health conditions. It is a strange thing too though because coming from the psychedelic rave scene, I have definitely seen a crazy amount of what would likely be deemed reckless use go totally unpunished by an individual's psyche. This stuff is so idiosyncratic and some people just have a disposition or mindset (hard to know which it is) that prevents them from falling into serious trouble psychologically on moderate to high doses of psychedelics.
hey Joseph we should talk and discuss this as I feel this misses one of the most important and significant barriers to education and preventing the harms you discuss in this piece which is criminalization.
The harms for instance 'Cassidy' experienced were not due to decriminalization but under current criminalization and the barriers in place in the current system.
I'm in the Santa Cruz area under a local deprioritization decriminalized city where I've actually witnessed more people feeling safer to ask questions, seek out harm reduction, education and support now in the past few years than ever before.
We need decriminalization first at local, state and federal levels in order to improve access to education and harm reduction and on the path towards legal access or we will have more 'Cassidy's not less.
Sandra Dreisbach MA. Phd, Psychedelic Ethics
831-419-8794