Part 2: Cover Letter
16.1 million Americans suffer from depression and 19.7 million adults struggled with a substance use disorder. We have a magic cure for all of them... but it is illegal.
Albert Hofmann synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide for the first time in 1938 and introduced psychedelics to the scientific community. (“LSD: A Short History”) Since Hofmann’s discovery, Lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD was used in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s by psychiatrists in therapy to help their patients. LSD and other psychedelics were then popularised by often outspoken and counterculture leaders such as Harvard professor Timothy Leary. (Pollan) The drugs were very quickly adopted by the counterculture movement in the 1960s. The drugs’ ability to change the world perspective of a whole age group of young Americans, affected the government in such a strong way and so they made many of the psychedelics illegal in the late 1960s. The government’s belief that psychedelics could change the mind of so many and influence them to disagree with the government, scared them. It scared them so much, that in 1970 President Nixon created the “Controlled Substances Act, rendering psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, and DMT illegal” (“Psychedelic Research Timeline”).
Psychedelics can cause bad side effects on people, and a bad trip is the most common. A bad trip is usually a side effect of either, bad environment, a bad mindset, or both. Often psychedelics are taken in a club or party environment which can be overwhelming to the user and cause a bad experience. If a user goes in with the mindset that they are going to have a bad trip they more likely than not are going to. Bad trips are difficult experiences for people but don't have any long term side effects. Psychedelics can very rarely cause schizophrenia and other similar disorders. This happens mostly in people who have a predisposition to mental disorders.
Although the negative side effects of psychedelics are scary and possible, they are very rare and outweighed by the positives side effects. It has a huge potential in medicine, from curing alcoholism and drug users to helping people to quit smoking, changing terminally ill patients’ outlook on death and helping to cure depression and other mental illnesses. People diagnosed with cancer often develop symptoms of depression and anxiety. In a randomized double-blind study conducted by researchers at John Hopkins hospital on cancer patients showed a decrease in depression and anxiety and an increase in quality of life and death acceptance (“Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer”).
Because of their overwhelming positives, I think psychedelics should be decriminalized, studied, and eventually legalized. Although bad trips are a possible side effect of taking psychedelics, they are easily avoidable and sometimes can be extremely beneficial learning experiences for the recipient. The negatives are heavily outweighed by the positives and in the eyes of a utilitarian, they are a good idea. This cost-benefit analysis is why I believe that psychedelics are more helpful than harmful, and it is unjust to keep them from the people that need them.
There is no reason that medicine that can and would do so much good should be illegal and seen as something party goers and hippies do. A medicine that can cure diseases and give people a new positive outlook on life should not be criminalized just because they were popularized by an “outlawed” group of people. The members of the counterculture movement, or hippies as we say now, have been marginalized and decriminalized for decades. Under the veil of ignorance, we would not allow discrimination of an entire group of people, and it is extremely unjust that this is our entire reasoning for criminalizing psychedelics. It is not only unjust to the psychedelics and their reputation but unjust to all the people that would have benefitted from what psychedelics have to offer. It is as if the key to so many people’s problems has been yanked away and locked underground for only a few to have, and if we are a society that wants to progress and help all of our citizens, we should decriminalize psychedelics once and for all.
Albert Hofmann synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide for the first time in 1938 and introduced psychedelics to the scientific community. (“LSD: A Short History”) Since Hofmann’s discovery, Lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD was used in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s by psychiatrists in therapy to help their patients. LSD and other psychedelics were then popularised by often outspoken and counterculture leaders such as Harvard professor Timothy Leary. (Pollan) The drugs were very quickly adopted by the counterculture movement in the 1960s. The drugs’ ability to change the world perspective of a whole age group of young Americans, affected the government in such a strong way and so they made many of the psychedelics illegal in the late 1960s. The government’s belief that psychedelics could change the mind of so many and influence them to disagree with the government, scared them. It scared them so much, that in 1970 President Nixon created the “Controlled Substances Act, rendering psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, and DMT illegal” (“Psychedelic Research Timeline”).
Psychedelics can cause bad side effects on people, and a bad trip is the most common. A bad trip is usually a side effect of either, bad environment, a bad mindset, or both. Often psychedelics are taken in a club or party environment which can be overwhelming to the user and cause a bad experience. If a user goes in with the mindset that they are going to have a bad trip they more likely than not are going to. Bad trips are difficult experiences for people but don't have any long term side effects. Psychedelics can very rarely cause schizophrenia and other similar disorders. This happens mostly in people who have a predisposition to mental disorders.
Although the negative side effects of psychedelics are scary and possible, they are very rare and outweighed by the positives side effects. It has a huge potential in medicine, from curing alcoholism and drug users to helping people to quit smoking, changing terminally ill patients’ outlook on death and helping to cure depression and other mental illnesses. People diagnosed with cancer often develop symptoms of depression and anxiety. In a randomized double-blind study conducted by researchers at John Hopkins hospital on cancer patients showed a decrease in depression and anxiety and an increase in quality of life and death acceptance (“Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer”).
Because of their overwhelming positives, I think psychedelics should be decriminalized, studied, and eventually legalized. Although bad trips are a possible side effect of taking psychedelics, they are easily avoidable and sometimes can be extremely beneficial learning experiences for the recipient. The negatives are heavily outweighed by the positives and in the eyes of a utilitarian, they are a good idea. This cost-benefit analysis is why I believe that psychedelics are more helpful than harmful, and it is unjust to keep them from the people that need them.
There is no reason that medicine that can and would do so much good should be illegal and seen as something party goers and hippies do. A medicine that can cure diseases and give people a new positive outlook on life should not be criminalized just because they were popularized by an “outlawed” group of people. The members of the counterculture movement, or hippies as we say now, have been marginalized and decriminalized for decades. Under the veil of ignorance, we would not allow discrimination of an entire group of people, and it is extremely unjust that this is our entire reasoning for criminalizing psychedelics. It is not only unjust to the psychedelics and their reputation but unjust to all the people that would have benefitted from what psychedelics have to offer. It is as if the key to so many people’s problems has been yanked away and locked underground for only a few to have, and if we are a society that wants to progress and help all of our citizens, we should decriminalize psychedelics once and for all.