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I think it's an overreaction to fear mongering stories about psychedelics that are much less common now than a decade or two ago. But it would be crazy to dismi

I think it's an overreaction to fear mongering stories about psychedelics that are much less common now than a decade or two ago. But it would be crazy to dismiss the danger in taking psychedelics or to bill them as being suitable for everyone, I agree. An underground and recreational drug culture is prone to dismissing risk and ill equipped to create safe and supportive environments, or to respond to medical/psychological emergencies. And that's kinda the better case scenario, there are also cults that abuse psychedelics and it's incredibly harmful. Hopefully over the next few decades this stuff can be decriminalized and can move towards more therapeutic environments. I believe that in the right circumstances they can improve/save lives.

lta 4y ago
I'm the living counter example. I've experienced it multiple times in settings that would be very closed to ideal for psy-heads, hence one random day, something very similar to what's described in this article happened. Took me about a decade to recover. I was very close friends with lots of people in the psychedelic harm reduction associations and had a lot of theoritical and practical knowledge...
- maxbond 4y ago
  I'm really sorry that happened to you. I think it's clear that for some people it's just inappropriate, and that preparedness is necessary but not sufficient. I don't think it's clear when it is or isn't appropriate, which is obviously super dangerous and deserving of further study. I think it's important for stories like yours, the top level comment, and the article to be shared & taken seriously. (To be clear, that's not what I meant about fear mongering stories. I mean fictitious boogy man stories, like https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/orange-juice-lsd/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/orange-juice-lsd/ . You can see the same thing with fentanyl today - fentanyl is deadly, but people still feel the need to exaggerate and attribute impossible characteristics to it, leading to panic attacks in cops that so much as touch it. In the same way, psychedelics are dangerous, but there was a time when people felt compelled to invent fictitious ways for them to be dangerous.)

lta 4y ago

I'm the living counter example. I've experienced it multiple times in settings that would be very closed to ideal for psy-heads, hence one random day, something very similar to what's described in this article happened. Took me about a decade to recover. I was very close friends with lots of people in the psychedelic harm reduction associations and had a lot of theoritical and practical knowledge...

maxbond 4y ago
I'm really sorry that happened to you. I think it's clear that for some people it's just inappropriate, and that preparedness is necessary but not sufficient. I don't think it's clear when it is or isn't appropriate, which is obviously super dangerous and deserving of further study. I think it's important for stories like yours, the top level comment, and the article to be shared & taken seriously. (To be clear, that's not what I meant about fear mongering stories. I mean fictitious boogy man stories, like https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/orange-juice-lsd/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/orange-juice-lsd/ . You can see the same thing with fentanyl today - fentanyl is deadly, but people still feel the need to exaggerate and attribute impossible characteristics to it, leading to panic attacks in cops that so much as touch it. In the same way, psychedelics are dangerous, but there was a time when people felt compelled to invent fictitious ways for them to be dangerous.)