Meanwhile, it has long been known that psychedelics such as ketamine, DMT (ayahuasca), LSD, psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) or MMDA (related to MDMA (ecstasy)) can alleviate mental suffering. There are hundreds of studies about it. In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, many universities conducted research on the subject. This came to an abrupt halt when US President Richard Nixon in his 1970 campaign against drugs strictly regulated almost all mind-altering substances. The United Nations followed suit in its Convention on Psychotropic Substances. This marked the beginning of a decade-long, state-imposed ice age.
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In the late 1990s, researchers cautiously revisited psychedelics in search of alternatives to antidepressants, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psilocybin has been tested on terminally ill patients to reduce their fear of dying. There are now research centers again. Among them are the one by Harvard professor Rosenbaum and one at the renowned Johns Hopkins University, which was started in 2019 with $17 million in donations from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, among others.
Is society, above all doctors and the pharmaceutical industry, ready to accept former party drugs as medicines that bring healing?