Of all the mixed up messages to infect mainstream thinking, the fear and stigmatization of psychedelic use is one of the most pervasive and bizarre. The uneducated masses have ingested false narratives casting these substances as a society-destroying, mind-melting, dangerous, damaging Force Of Ultimate Evil.

However, there is no shortage of research [and human history] to support the fact that these substances, while not without their risks, are substantially less risky than consuming readily available and widely accepted substances such as alcohol. Even more, these plant medicines or entheogens (or whatever you want to call them) stand to do substantial GOOD in the world.

We are enthusiastically supportive of the incredible work being done to bring truth into this conversation. We are eager to see therapists across the globe released to use MDMA, psilocybin, ketamine, ibogaine, and other "dangerous drugs" to bring hope and healing to people in need.

In the meantime, the energy around and within the movement to normalize psychedelic use makes for a particularly electric liminal space. Mainstream stories of veterans, sexual abuse survivors, cancer patients are widely read. Michael Pollan's book on the topic has widened the circle dramatically. There are so many great forces coming into alignment to open new possibilities and diffuse old narratives. Suddenly we are asking the right questions -- and we're asking them out in the open.

Nobody wants to say they are pro-drug in the era of "Drug War" thinking. On the other hand, nobody wants to tell a veteran whose PTSD was virtually irradicated by a new approach to psychotherapy [plus a handful of sessions with MDMA] that she should have avoided the "party drug" approach and instead committed to a lifetime of daily doses of pharmaceuticals that don't work.

The world is changing.

That is good.