The government’s psychedelic research ban is an expensive disaster
“When I brought up the idea to my postdoctoral mentor, he nearly laughed me out of the office and said I’d have to do it on my own own,” says Peter Hendricks, assistant professor of health behavior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. [He writes], “When you control for all of these potential confounding variables and try to isolate the unique effects of hallucinogen use, it appears protective.”
Hendricks and his team analyzed data that had already been collected from nearly 26,000 arrestees who had been diverted to a program of supervision to manage substance problems between 2002 and 2007. They found that having a history of psychedelic drug use was linked with a 40 percent reduction in recidivism, even after controlling for factors like education and employment that might otherwise explain such a connection. In contrast, unsurprisingly, a history of cocaine use doubled the odds of being sent to prison.
Original Article (NYMag):
The Government’s Psychedelic Research Ban Is an Expensive Disaster
Artwork Fair Use: Thelmadatter
