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Should psychedelics be legal? (Social harm incurred from psychedelic…
Should psychedelics be legal?
Why are they illegal
The drug wars were the beginning of criminalization and marked a mass effort to cleanse America of drugs
Criminzalizing psychedelics served to institutionalize racism
The counter culture movement of the 60's created an upsurge in anti Vietnam war sentiments
Government threatened free thinking and their inability to control people
Why the drug wars failed
Supply side approach to prohibition is inherently flawed because only makes the drug trafficking industry more lucrative
US government complicit in trafficking of opium and cocaine from foreign supply
Making drugs illegal gives drug cartels more power
Overall illicit drug use in america has increased, become cheaper, and more pure, a failure on all fronts
Gap between science and policy
Politicization of science
Despite the body of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, policies refuse to change their scheduling status
Fear of social stigma and cultural backlash prevents researchers from doing clinical research
Clinical research is underfunded and exceptionally hard to get ethical approval from the FDA.
Benefits of Psychedelics
Offers a nuanced way of treating mental illness.
Efficacy of psychedelic therapy far surpasses efficacy of accepted evidence based practices
Especially effective in treating treatment-resistant conditions
Can be mutually informative between normal and abnormal states of consciousness.
Social harm incurred from psychedelic criminalization
Mass incarceration of mostly non-white, socioeconomically marginalized people
Indoctrinates by disseminating myths through about the dangers of drug use
Prevent possibility of developing a communal consciousness
Perpetuates harmful stereotypes which prevents minorities from seeing themselves as equals
Perpetuates harmful stereotypes about drug addicts as criminals of the law rather than victims of mental illness
To the future of a post prohibition world
Changing our vernacular from "drugs" to "medicines" or "plant teachers"
Psychedelics will be available by prescription to use as an adjunct to therapy
Focus on harm reduction rather than criminalization
Decrease drug dealing and homogenize and purify substances