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The Future of Recreational Drugs in America Part I
Undoubtedly, many students have had their fair share of experiences with recreational substances. After all, recreational substances are as synonymous with college culture as procrastination, overwhelming debt, and anxiety. Alcohol and tobacco have been fair game for decades, and with marijuana in the final stretch to federal legalization, what comes next in the crusade to effectively end the overwhelmingly harmful war on drugs?
Many believe that the next course of action will likely be to focus on the usage of natural hallucinogens.
To begin, it is best to understand the state of drugs in the United States. Drugs and substances are categorized into five different groups depending on their acceptable medical use and the potential to abuse or become dependent on. Schedule I is the most severe of these categories, indicating that the drugs in Schedule I have no accepted medical use and have an extremely high likelihood of abuse and dependency. Natural substances containing cannabinoids, Psilocybin, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and Mescaline have been marked as Schedule I substances; the same class as heroin. For further reference, Fentanyl and Ritalin are considered Schedule II substances and Xanax is a Schedule IV substance. Many readers may not care or fully understand the injustice done by scheduling these naturally occurring substances under the same class as heroin, as education on drugs and safe drug use is somewhat taboo in America. However, while researching these natural, hallucinogenic substances, many may discover that the negative social stigma behind them is somewhat unjustified.
Psilocybin mushrooms are rapidly gaining renown, especially following the decriminalization of “magic mushrooms” in Denver, Oakland, and Santa Cruz as well as its legalization for supervised mental health treatment in the state of Oregon. Psilocybin has been used therapeutically to treat those with PTSD and drug dependencies in places like Amsterdam for years.
Research studies have shown that Psilocybin is non-addictive and does not cause any compulsive use. The same can be said about many psychedelics, including Mescaline, DMT, and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD). It should also be noted that diving into research on these substances will yield no results on recorded cases of overdose deaths.
Psychedelic substances have been used across various cultures since the dawn of human civilization. Native American tribes, such as the Navajo, Morongo, and Tonkawa, used Mescaline in religious ceremonies and South American cultures, such as the Maya and Aztec, used Ayahuasca in the same way. Many ancient cultures around the world, from North and Central American native tribes, to European and Eurasian peoples, used Psilocybin mushrooms in religious and ceremonial rituals as well. These cultures used psychedelics to learn and teach, to worship and to tell stories, to preserve culture, history, and tradition. They have been a part of human culture for most of history, up until very recently, in the scope of human existence.
Personal testimonials of the use of these psychedelic substances are overwhelmingly positive. Many who have experienced the effects of these psychedelic substances passionately argue that they have changed their lives for the better. Some people claim that they have been saved from suicidal depression, and others have been able to cope with severe loss and trauma. Psychedelic usage is not meant for dissociation, like heroin, meth, and cocaine commonly are. Psychedelics are used to better understand and explore self-identity.
Perhaps legalization of these substances is not as far-off as it may seem. As of February 17, 2021, a bill has been introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener in the California Senate to allow for the possession, usage, cultivation, and sharing of certain psychedelic substances. It also officially recognizes the potential medical benefits of certain substances based on recent research and anecdotal evidence. These drugs include Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, Mescaline, and Ibogaine. This would mean that individuals incarcerated on possession charges would be released and have that portion of criminal history expunged from their records. It would also make way for widely accepted research and the eventual decriminalization of drug possession and usage.
As with any substance, these drugs are not without their risks. But a proper step in the right direction would be to create systems of education for safe drug use so that younger people understand the risks and benefits that follow. Instead of ignoring the topic, and allowing future generations to figure it out at their own risk, a system should be implemented to educate students on substances and substance abuse. Of course, it isn’t so simply solved, but these ideas could help lay out the foundation of a safer world, one in which students and other individuals don’t commonly overdose and people aren’t imprisoned for decades on simple possession charges.
Useful links and references:
Drug scheduling information
An article examining and summing up CA Bill SB-519
Full CA Bill SB-519
Case study on LSD and its safety
Information about psilocybin mushrooms
A helpful article that provides information about the war on drugs and some steps taken towards ending it
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2018/06/27/452786/ending-war-drugs/