A Psychedelic Renaissance
philanthropy.com
A Psychedelic Renaissance
1–10 of 109 posts
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#2The funding discussed here is for scientific studies. But it's not clear what important question is still open and needs further study. From what I've read [1, 2, 3, 4], the psychological benefits are well-established and powerful if used in the right mindset, and the health risks are also well-established and rare or minor if used carefully.
So science seems to have answered the questions it can answer. The obstacle to wider use is policy and regulation.
Is funding scientific studies where the answers are already known an effective way to change government and social policy? It could be, but I hope everyone involved understands whether they're doing Science or Advocacy.
[1] Michael Pollan, _How to Change your Mind_
[2] James Fadiman, _The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide_
[3] Ayelet Waldman, _A Very Good Day_
[4] Dozens of popular articles
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#3The funding discussed here is for scientific studies. But it's not clear what important question is still open and needs further study. From what I've read [1, 2, 3, 4], the psychological benefits are well-established and powerful if used in the right mindset, and the health risks are also well-established and rare or minor if used carefully. So science seems to have answered the questions it can answer. The obstacle…
> the psychological benefits are well-established and powerful if used in the right mindset, and the health risks are also well-established and rare or minor if used carefully.
> I hope everyone involved understands whether they're doing Science or Advocacy.
The data (science) gives creditably to the activist and lobbyist hoping to change policy (advocacy). I think everyone is clear on what side they are on.
There is plenty of space for science to expand our understanding. What is the probability of a bad outcome of psychedelics? How does dose effect the probability of a bad outcome? Is Mushrooms, LSD, or MDMA the most effective treatment for PTSD? For end of life anxiety? For major depression? What conditions are these substances helpful for (I don't think we have a complete list)? When should a medical provider recommend psychedelics? Can psychedelics be used on everyone, or just those with certain conditions? How does repeated long term exposure adjust the risk profile? What is the optimal microdosing schedule? What are the objective benefits of microdosing? What is optimal microdosing dose? Who should be microdosing?
There are a lot of unanswered questions to answer, and probably even more questions we don't have enough data to know to ask. The studies that we have are with low sample sizes, so larger studies would be scientifically significant. What we have with psychedelics are a few recent studies done with modern scientific rigor that all conclude there is a lot of potential in this space. We have more historical studies done, but without modern scientific rigor and need to be recreated before being reliable data.
Lets not forget that while these human trials are taking place real people are legally being given life changing help. That's enough to make the entire thing worth it.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#4I keep my bell-bottom jeans, disco ball, lava lamp, and wide ties because I'm pretty sure they'll come back in style eventually, sometimes twice. However, keeping all that stuff drives my spouse crazy. My parents' furniture from the late 1950's is quite in style now.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#5When did we forgo
> Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
?
"Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments and supplements are marketed as safe (government stamp of approval) all the time.
I recall how green tea extract destroyed someone's liver because the dosage was just crazy high. But it's green tea, so must be good for you? Or how about alcohol or tobacco or opioids which are literally killing people?
I think psychedelics should be unbanned first, because it's the right thing to do. The need for more research to treat specific conditions is a separate manner.
At the very least this should apply to mushrooms and perhaps LSD. MDMA can be great even in self-administered setting but I think it has more potential for (unintentional) abuse.
But mushrooms can be abused right? Sure. What about people who died in water drinking or hot-dog eating contents then? Are we going to ban those?
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#6When did we forgo > Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ? "Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments an…
Also, psychedelics make you face your inner demons. Perhaps not right away because the wonders of the experience can be captivating, for a while. But sooner or later they will. Many people I talked to tried something like LSD once or twice and while they enjoyed the fun part they didn't like what they've seen once the party was over and they were left alone with their own thoughts. This is where the benefits are but it's work and it's not easy.
Just imagine something like cannabis lounge where you could take mushrooms in safe setting and if you feel overwhelmed you could talk to a trained staff member. Not necessarily a psychologist, just someone who can guide you through the experience. I really believe it could unleash incredible well-being for the society.
But then who'd gobble up those anxiety or depression or ADHD or sleeping^` pills?
^1 Wasn't there a severe warning issued by FDA on sleeping pills just few days ago? Risk of injury or death? I had some Ambien to sleep on a plane but I thrown that stuff away.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#7When did we forgo > Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ? "Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments an…
Not to mention this passage:
> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Unless your definition of "religion" is so narrow and legalistic that you don't consider non-institutionalized forms of belief to be protected under this statement.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#8When did we forgo > Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ? "Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments an…
Also, psychedelics make you face your inner demons. Perhaps not right away because the wonders of the experience can be captivating, for a while. But sooner or later they will. Many people I talked to tried something like LSD once or twice and while they enjoyed the fun part they didn't like what they've seen once the party was over and they were left alone with their own thoughts. This is where the benefits are but…
>Just imagine something like cannabis lounge where you could take mushrooms in safe setting and if you feel overwhelmed you could talk to a trained staff member. Not necessarily a psychologist, just someone who can guide you through the experience. I really believe it could unleash incredible well-being for the society.
I like idea of this, but I don't think I'd like to do mushrooms in a place like that. I tend to alternate between getting strong urges to wander and urges to just sit and do nothing and i'm not a big fan having people around not also on mushrooms. I couldn't hand sitting in a cafe like that for the duration of a trip. That would probably make it worse for me.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#9When did we forgo > Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ? "Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments an…
> When did we forgo
>> Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
Right about the time we started screaming for government regulation every single instace we saw something we didn’t like/agree with in the world around us.
"It’s for your own good" and "Think of the children" were such convenient excuses to shift our responsibility from us to an ever growing government more than happy to protect us from ourselves.
Re: A Psychedelic Renaissance
#10When did we forgo > Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ? "Modern" mentality seems to be that everything is illegal unless government specifically approves. Any substance that emerges and becomes popular enough gets banned immediately (unless there's a huge backlash; I can only recall one case like that, kratom. Don't know much about that substance though). Meanwhile invasive questionable medical treatments an…
> When did we forgo >> Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness Right about the time we started screaming for government regulation every single instace we saw something we didn’t like/agree with in the world around us. "It’s for your own good" and "Think of the children" were such convenient excuses to shift our responsibility from us to an ever growing government more than happy to protect us from ourselves.
That's ahistorical and just wrong. The government saw an opportunity to selectively target its most dissident elements during the 60s and it went for it: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-rich...
"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."