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Psychedelics should be legal, and most people should stay away from them until we have high-quality research on them and someone with credentials in psychiatry

Psychedelics should be legal, and most people should stay away from them until we have high-quality research on them and someone with credentials in psychiatry or medicine instructs otherwise. These drugs are very powerful and can make permanent and potentially severe changes to your mind. I fear that the push for legalization might be interpreted by some as either encouragement to try them or a signal that they're not as serious as they are.

foolfoolz 5y ago
“acid used to be so much better back when it was illegal and people took it seriously” get off my lawn
pmoriarty 5y ago
"Psychedelics should be legal, and most people should stay away from them until we have high-quality research on them and someone with credentials in psychiatry or medicine instructs otherwise." I'm not convinced that having to have permission or advice from the medical community is the only legitimate way these substances should be used. There are strong cases to be made for their religious or spiritual use, and for simple cognitive liberty -- the right of everyone to alter their consciousness how they see fit, for any reason they like, without needing to get permission from anyone. On the religious/spiritual side, many of these substances are sacred to a lot of people who are otherwise healthy and who shouldn't need a doctor's permission to exercise their religion (in the widest sense of the term that is closer to "spirituality", not just in the narrow sense of being an organized religion similar to the Judeo-Christian faiths). There are already religious exemptions for religious use of peyote and ayahuasca, and I see no reason why every other psychedelic couldn't get similar exemptions. It's possible psychedelic mushrooms will be the next substance so exempted, though I'm unaware of any serious efforts currently under way to do that. "These drugs are very powerful and can make permanent and potentially severe changes to your mind." This is absolutely true (though usually the changes are temporary -- most people fall back in to old habits before long, even if they've had a very powerful experience). Everyone should definitely educate themselves as much as possible about any substance they take, and about how to do so as safely and constructively as possible (which is usually also the most enjoyable way to use them too). However, we should also acknowledge that driving a car can also make permanent and potentially severe changes in your mind (though, unlike psychedelics, such if such changes happen they're almost always negative). Yet people drive all the time, knowing they could get in to an accident and suffer brain damage or death, which many do. Skydiving, scuba diving, parachuting, pretty much every physical sport has a risk of brain damage, injury, or death associated with it, yet most people play all but the riskiest of these without giving them much thought. Despite occasional accidents and risks most people don't obsess over or try to ban participation in them. Instead we try to focus on ways to make them safer.

foolfoolz 5y ago

“acid used to be so much better back when it was illegal and people took it seriously” get off my lawn

pmoriarty 5y ago

"Psychedelics should be legal, and most people should stay away from them until we have high-quality research on them and someone with credentials in psychiatry or medicine instructs otherwise." I'm not convinced that having to have permission or advice from the medical community is the only legitimate way these substances should be used. There are strong cases to be made for their religious or spiritual use, and for simple cognitive liberty -- the right of everyone to alter their consciousness how they see fit, for any reason they like, without needing to get permission from anyone. On the religious/spiritual side, many of these substances are sacred to a lot of people who are otherwise healthy and who shouldn't need a doctor's permission to exercise their religion (in the widest sense of the term that is closer to "spirituality", not just in the narrow sense of being an organized religion similar to the Judeo-Christian faiths). There are already religious exemptions for religious use of peyote and ayahuasca, and I see no reason why every other psychedelic couldn't get similar exemptions. It's possible psychedelic mushrooms will be the next substance so exempted, though I'm unaware of any serious efforts currently under way to do that. "These drugs are very powerful and can make permanent and potentially severe changes to your mind." This is absolutely true (though usually the changes are temporary -- most people fall back in to old habits before long, even if they've had a very powerful experience). Everyone should definitely educate themselves as much as possible about any substance they take, and about how to do so as safely and constructively as possible (which is usually also the most enjoyable way to use them too). However, we should also acknowledge that driving a car can also make permanent and potentially severe changes in your mind (though, unlike psychedelics, such if such changes happen they're almost always negative). Yet people drive all the time, knowing they could get in to an accident and suffer brain damage or death, which many do. Skydiving, scuba diving, parachuting, pretty much every physical sport has a risk of brain damage, injury, or death associated with it, yet most people play all but the riskiest of these without giving them much thought. Despite occasional accidents and risks most people don't obsess over or try to ban participation in them. Instead we try to focus on ways to make them safer.