
The Law Isn't Ready for Psychedelic Medicine - Elof
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/psychedelic-medicine-is-coming-the-law-isnt-ready/
======
bjourne
I frequent other message boards in which people share their stories about
using drugs. One story I read a while ago was from a "newbie" (novice?)
sharing his experience taking LSD. First he got some nice hallucinations but
then he took a knife from his kitchen and started carving up his arm. Which,
of course, meant he lost lots of blood and had to go to the hospital.

Anyways, the point, for me, wasn't the story itself but how the more
experienced drug users reacted. They didn't write "You're lying! LSD is a
mellow drug and won't cause you to harm yourself." Nope, nothing of the sort,
instead their opinion was that the novice made a "classic rookie mistake" by
leaving dangerous items around. One user wrote that before he tripped he
always hid all dangerous items as a precaution. What I also read on that
message board was that you shouldn't experiment with psychedelia _unless you
have a stable psyche_.

Would a pill with the label "Not to be taken by people with an unstable
psyche" or "Possible side effects: Knife carving of muscle tissue by user"
pass any regulatory body? I think if such substance came from big pharma most
people would be very skeptical.

~~~
0x8BADF00D
> Would a pill with the label "Not to be taken by people with an unstable
> psyche" or "Possible side effects: Knife carving of muscle tissue by user"
> pass any regulatory body?

And yet alcohol kills and maims millions per year. The tool is not dangerous,
it is the person who (mis)uses it.

~~~
scottlocklin
Millions? Citations needed. Assuming this is right in some sense, alcohol has
been integrated into functioning civilizations for thousands of years and
still causes this kind of damage, where insane garbage like LSD hasn't, and no
civilization worth talking about has managed to integrate a psychedelic drug
with it and maintain a high level of civilization. And yes, I've tried it, and
I've seen what it does to people: nothing positive.

Sure makes people think they're clever though.

~~~
KptMarchewa
[https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alco...](https://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msb_gsr_2014_1.pdf)

Page 14.

~~~
scottlocklin
Great; some NGO, based on (citations needed) claims millions of premature
deaths a year from alcohol, a substance which has been used by humans for at
least 30,000 years. I look forward to their detailed report on what the
projections are for widespread psychedelic use.

Of course there won't be any. Because psychedelic use is at least at present a
useful form of social control. I know a few people who killed themselves
drinking and driving, and have a cousin who drank themselves to death. I know
dozens, perhaps hundreds of people who have destroyed themselves
psychologically using psychedelics. Dead people are tragic. Zombies are worse.

~~~
sergioj97
> "Because psychedelic is at least at present a useful form of social control"

Why significantly more so than alcohol?

------
pmoriarty
If psychedelic use becomes more widespread it could lead to a radical change
in society the like of which we haven't seen since the 1960's. This is the one
slight sliver of hope I'm holding out for the future.

~~~
lostmsu
What does psychedelic use have to do with a change in society? I lived in
Seattle during the time marijuana was legalized, and did not see anything of
the sort.

~~~
CameronNemo
Cannabis is not psychedelic, at least to the same degree that classical
psychedelics are (Psilocybin, Mescaline, DMT).

~~~
throwaway8879
You're right. Although someone like Terrence McKennna would categorize
cannabis as psychoactive. Very heavy doses have that almost borderline trippy
visuals effect once in a while, in my personal experience.

~~~
CameronNemo
Psychoactive is a blanket term that applies to all substances that affect the
brain. It primarily consists of sedatives, stimulants, and hallucinogens.

------
dfischer
We should eliminate a majority of law. Too much law is like an over engineered
program with edge cases for everything that prevents anything from changing in
the future. Law cements stagnancy in our society. And at the worst, it creates
moats for the powers that can use law to protect their interests over others.

~~~
yoube
Why is tech infested with know-it-all libertarians? Honestly, do you think
we'd all be better off in a lawless anarchy?

~~~
dymk
Same reason "Let's just throw it away and rewrite it the _right way_ this
time!" is such a common failure mode of engineering projects.

While it nearly assures the death of the project, it's so enticing due to its
simplicity.

~~~
dfischer
The point isn’t to throw it away - law has meaning. It has less meaning when
it defines everything.

------
not_a_cop75
Honestly, what IS the law ready for?

Lawyers making money? Check. Benefiting the public at large? Big Nope.

~~~
loxs
Yeah, for millions of years, we always waited for the law to be ready, before
we made some breakthrough.

------
xrd
Many states (Oregon and Colorado) are starting to decriminalize psilocybin.
The interesting thing is always how the federal government views this and what
actions it takes. I'm optimistic.

~~~
Elof
Just happed in June in the Bay Area, CA. Alameda County, which includes
Berkeley and Oakland. The law is for naturally derived psychedelics so it
includes things like DMT and Ibogaine as well

------
XaoDaoCaoCao
It's a cultural crime that psychedelics have been criminalized for half a
century or so.

The expansion of certain mental faculties (3-D Visualization, free thought
association, meta-thought) could have been harvested for societal benefit...

Oh well, wishes to the dust and all that.

~~~
drawkbox
1970-2030+ or so will be seen as a drug dark age. A time where criminalization
made everything more dangerous, and harm reduction worse. Part of a 60+ year
gap in innovation using all substances for many health related cures and
issues as well as recreational fun and exploration.

We learned nothing from alcohol (a drug) prohibition.

All prohibition and criminalization does is make everything more harmful, from
use, to production, to creating cartels/mafias that become as powerful as
nation states.

~~~
chepaslaaa
>creating cartels/mafias that become as powerful as nation states.

The state is balls deep in those cartels. Go read about Freeway Rick Ross and
Afghanistan poppy fields for prime examples. It's all part of the military
industrial complex, Peter Dale Scott has great books on the matter.

~~~
acqq
The books of the mentioned author on that topic:

[https://rowman.com/isbn/9780742525221/drugs-oil-and-war-
the-...](https://rowman.com/isbn/9780742525221/drugs-oil-and-war-the-united-
states-in-afghanistan-colombia-and-indochina)

[https://rowman.com/isbn/9780742555952/american-war-
machine-d...](https://rowman.com/isbn/9780742555952/american-war-machine-deep-
politics-the-cia-global-drug-connection-and-the-road-to-afghanistan)

Author's page:

[https://www.peterdalescott.net/q/](https://www.peterdalescott.net/q/)

------
lovvtide
The implication that this _has anything to do_ with the law is amusing.

------
techntoke
Psychedelics are legal if you're wealthy.

~~~
WalterSear
There are plenty that are cheap to obtain or grow.

~~~
techntoke
But the cops only care about them if you're poor.

~~~
WalterSear
The cops are only involved if you are purchasing the expensive ones from
dealers.

Essentially nobody is being arrested for purchasing spore syringes, cactus
seeds or salvia divinorum. The police aren't interested.

~~~
techntoke
If you are growing shrooms then you'll likely being charged with possessing
them with intent to distribute, which is 5 years in prison.

