In June of this year, the world’s first venture capital firm focused on psychedelics was established in Canada. Three months later, the firm, Field Trip Ventures, partnered with the University of the West Indies to create the first ever legal research and cultivation facility for psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) in Kingston, Jamaica. Some say a so-called “psychedelic renaissance” is upon us, as research into the psychotherapeutic benefits of psychedelic substances like LSD and Psilocybin has seen a resurgence. But with these drugs still classified as Schedule I in the United States, we need drastic societal changes if we want to see any tangible evidence-based results.
Just because something is illegal does not mean it’s wrong. In fact, just because many people believe something is wrong doesn’t mean it's wrong. Since the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970 during Richard Nixon’s presidency, the general public has perceived psychedelic drugs (the class of drugs including LSD and Psilocybin, also known as “acid'' and “magic mushrooms,” respectively) to be dangerous, addictive substances that have no potential health benefits – this thinking is incorrect and should be reversed.
We can continue to stigmatize psychedelics and their use, or we can take them off the Schedule I controlled substance list and continue the research that once proved to have promising results. I vote for the latter. Founded in 1986, MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) is the leading non-profit educational and research organization focusing on the safe intentional use of psychedelic drugs. They posit, “centuries of colonization, criminalization, and propaganda” created discomfort around the use of psychedelic substances, as they were linked to indigenous peoples our country’s early settlers looked to displace. Stigmatization is what causes much of the misuse and harm these drugs produce, they claim, and the decriminalization of one drug at a time only furthers this stigmatization, as we begin to almost rank drugs based on which ones are better or worse.
This is not a productive way to go about the discourse surrounding psychedelic substances. We must focus on the facts if we truly want to get our points across. First, there are very few documented deaths linked to LSD and Psilocybin (and by very few, I mean most research claims there have been zero deaths linked to LSD and Psilocybin). In the United States, there are approximately 88,000 alcohol related deaths per year, and over 7 million people die globally from cigarette smoking every year. Furthermore, Michael Pollan, author of best selling book “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence,” writes in a blog post that, “the fatal dose of LSD is 1000 times larger than the dose that causes an effect. So, it would be much harder to accidentally overdose on LSD than most other drugs — the fatal dose of intravenous heroin, for example, is just 5 times larger than the effective dose.” Why are psychedelic substances illegal, but other things like cigarettes and alcohol are not?
Next, studies have shown that “microdosing” (consuming 1/20 to 1/10 of a “normal dose” of a psychedelic) can actually have incredible effects on a users mental state. Anecdotal evidence time and time again shows microdosers reporting boosts in their creativity, productivity, and mood, even though the majority of the microdose’s effects are sub-perceptual. Even Steve Jobs spoke highly of the practice, saying, “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”
Further, there re specific benefits of microdosing for those with depression and anxiety. Ayelet Waldman, author of “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life,” claims after taking her first microdose, “I felt happy. Not giddy or out control, just at ease with myself and the world. When I think about my husband and my children, I feel a gentle sense of love and security. I am not anxious for them or annoyed with them. When I think of my work, I feel optimistic, brimming with ideas, yet not spilling over.” If microdosing psychedelics is able to lift someone out of their depression, there must be something that our government is missing in their classification of these drugs. They are safe in terms of neurotoxicity, non-addictive and non-habit forming, and have proven to have (at least anecdotal) psychotherapeutic benefits.
It’s hard for me to say we should fully legalize the possession and use of psychedelics, as our government likely does not want the liability of any deaths resulting from decisions made while using these mind altering substances, and due to the lack of research surrounding their use. However, by decriminalizing their possession and use, more research into the benefits of these substances can continue, and we may get closer to ending their useless stigmatization.
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