Introduction to Drugs, Part II

Here are two articles on a recent scientific study on the effects of our friend, psylocybin (the 'magic' in 'Magic Mushrooms').

• Wall Street Journal, Go Ask Alice
• Forbes, M&M Drug Study

(In general, I don't read news sites with advertising, but that's the topic of another post. These links were sent to me by a trusted friend, so I'll just move on...)

Make what you will from the articles, for the claims are true, but I want to address a few things.

#1: "Two-thirds described the effects of the drug, called psilocybin, as among the five most meaningful experiences of their lives."

Yeah, that happens. Ask me though, and getting high in a lab wouldn't be up there... getting high with friends at home, in a club, in the woods, in the city, I.E., doing something... yah, those can be great times! They are only the most meaningful experiences until you actually do the things that you realized while tripping... then those experiences become the most meaningful things. Get it?

#2: "But in 30% of the cases, the drug provoked harrowing experiences dominated by fear and paranoia. Two participants likened the episodes to being in a war."

Yeah, that happens... until the responsible tripper tells them... "Hey... you're just tripping on a bad thought... everything's okay, we're having a great time," and then... they do. Tripping in an unfamiliar, sterile place like a lab is a recipe for a bad trip! I'm surprised only 30% had one!

#3: The method employed... First off, they selected people with no prior hallucinagenic drug experiences, and gave them no training. OMG!

And finally, the sad part, couched in the amazing part:

It was widespread abuse in the 1960s that led to hallucinogens becoming illegal, effectively shutting down then-burgeoning corporate and academic research programs that had suggested the agents might be valuable research and therapeutic tools. One of the last influential studies was the Good Friday Experiment in 1962 in which 20 seminary students were given either psilocybin or nicotinic acid during a religious service. The 10 who got psilocybin reported intense spiritual experiences with positive benefits; one follow-up study suggested those effects lasted 25 years.

Entheogen literally means (from ancient Greek) "that which generates God (or godly inspiration) within a person."

Not all drugs are bad... not all people who use them are evil dealers, and not all uses of them are perverse, some are even holy!