The psychedelic [renaissance]
Psychedelic drugs have been typecast as the preserve of hippies, jungle shamans, and psychonauts (people who use drugs to explore their own mind), and more recently the playthings of privileged elites seeking spiritual nirvana, but this stereotype is a chimera … why should those attempting to view the world and themselves honestly, critically, with empathy and idealism— [whatever] their outcomes—be subject to greater derision than the cynical profiteers…
These once niche drugs are now being taken by an increasingly diverse population. More than 40 percent of the American young adults who admitted in 2017 to taking hallucinogens in the previous year were women, and a third were nonwhite. In the US, you are almost twice as likely to take hallucinogens if you don’t have medical insurance than if you do … As people’s lives have changed, it follows they are using psychedelics for different reasons and in different ways. Unlike their counterculture grandparents, this generation of psychedelic users is less likely to expect the drugs to fundamentally change the world. They just want to make their own worlds a little bit saner, a bit more bearable, and a touch more magical. They are not dropping out; they are stepping back, briefly, from the mainstream to see the world, and themselves, anew … For the general public, liable as they are to suffer police shakedowns, sniffer-dog searches, and drug tests, the use of psychedelics for self-medication often has dire consequences. In the US, LSD and magic mushrooms are Schedule 1 drugs, and the [federal] sentence for someone caught for a third time distributing these drugs is life … [Paul] Corbett, [63, was arrested after being caught picking magic mushrooms in… Washington State] heaves a heavy sigh as he recounts his tale to me. “This has got to end. People need to be educated. My hope is to educate the whole courtroom. It’s a mystery to all of us why these things are illegal. And it’s a mystery to me why the word ‘liberty’ doesn’t apply to my curiosity and my entheogenic use.”
Original Article (Vice and Psymposia):
The Psychedelic Resistance & Washington Man Facing Prison for Foraging Wild Mushrooms
Artwork Fair Use: Johannes Philipp
