4 ms·

Why psilocybin and not LSD?

• pmoriarty 5y ago
  The focus of recent research in to psychedelics has been on psilocybin rather than LSD because, as one researcher joked, politicians don't know how to spell psilocybin. LSD still has some scary connotations towards some of the older generation based on the sensationalism and scare-mongering of the 60's and 70's, while most people didn't know about psilocybin until researchers started reporting positive things about it in the last decade or so. There have been some studies that showed that even experienced psychedelic users can't tell the difference between the major classic psychedelics, so there might be much actual difference between LSD and psilocybin in the last analysis... though more research is definitely needed. Still, if any classic psychedelic is legalized in the US, the first one will probably be psilocybin.. and research will continue to focus mostly on it, for the above mentioned reasons.
• ebb_earl_co 5y ago
  I think that it was Michael Pollan in an interview or in his book "How to Change Your Mind" who said that the principal reason is that a psilocybin trip can fit in the working day of a therapist/guide/researcher, whereas a typical LSD trip can last a dozen hours or more.