Modern Culture

The DEA scheduling system is a joke

Let’s get some more really obvious stuff out of the way: most, if not all, of these substances have well-documented medical use. As a thought experiment, let’s pretend that the DEA rescheduled and the FDA approved your medicine of choice tonight. Most people focus on how ridiculous it is to lump heroin, LSD, and cannabis…

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Modern Culture

New undergraduate think tank explores psychedelics

“We want to provide students with the correct information right now and hope their mindsets will shift given the information,” said Yonatan Araia ’19, the organization’s treasurer. “Our primary goal is not to have students leaving the talks thinking psychedelics are good. It’s for students to leave with information and research indicating objectively what we…

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Modern Culture

Are psychedelics the new prozac?

“…somewhere between This Is Your Brain on Drugs and legal marijuana, the narrative on psychedelics got flipped on its head. Instead of being a middle finger to an orderly society, as they were in the sixties, psychedelics have become this generation’s silver bullet of mental health and mindfulness.” After Timothy Leary was fired from Harvard…

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Modern Culture

Why I came out of the psychedelic closet

“Just as with gay rights, the psychedelic movement requires person-to-person advocacy. This can take the form of education, of explaining these substances from a cultural, historical, or scientific perspective. But in my opinion, the most effective way to change someone’s mind, or at least get them to reconsider their original position, isn’t through intellectual discourse;…

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Modern Culture

The dark side of ayahuasca

“It reminds me of how they sell cocaine and marijuana in Amsterdam,” one local said. “Here, it’s shamans and ayahuasca.” No one monitors the medicine men, their claims, or their credentials. With money rolling in and lodges popping up across Peru’s sprawling Amazon, a new breed of shaman has emerged – and not all of…

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