Yes, psychedelics should be made completely legal. They’re harmless. They’re not even addictive. They’re not even drugs. Most psychedelics you can’t even overdose on, it’s impossible. They are neither physically nor psychologically dangerous, whereas alchol certainly is. Alcohol is a much worse drug than, say, LSD, and you can buy it everywhere. That’s not a coincidence - it’s a reflection of the all-pervasive fear of freedom in society, its wicked addiction to subordination, following authority and not “rocking the boat”.

Psychedelics were legal before not too long ago. I am not an expert on the history of the prohibition, but if I recall correctly the power got really scared of the hippy movement, and Nixon decided to yank them. Scandalized reports on LSD-induced psychosis and/or suicide added to the hysteria (never confirmed later, but it was enough). There was no scientific evidence to support classifying them as Schedule I, no scientific testimony. No one spoke to the numerous psychiatrists who were studying psychedelics at the time, the popular view in their circles back then was that the discovery of psychedelics will be for psychiatry what the discovery of antibiotics became for general medicine - that is, pretty much, a magic bullet. They were correct, they got it right. Lots of research was going on etc.

And then it all went down the drain because of fear.

After the prohibition, getting grants became impossible and all respectable psychiatrists slowly started to turn away from them. Before you know it the public view on LSD became indistinguishable from that on, say, crack cocaine. They are not even remotely similar, not even in the same category. One is a drug, it’s addictive and physically dangerous, another is none of these things.

In my view, the worldwide prohibition of psychedelics is the biggest tragedy for humanity in the 20th century, and in terms of the amount of suffering it created, it easily overshadows WW2. A truly tragic event.

Power is based on fear, fear is blinding, so power is blind.

I cried rivers of tears for how humanity treats depression: the ignorance of modern psychology and psychiatry, their fear of emotional pain and suffering, the knee-jerk reaction to get one back into “working order” by whatever means necessary, the inability to give people the most basic, simple and effective medicine available, but rather putting them on the anti-depressant regime. No one understands depression, it’s a mystery, and everyone is afraid of what they don’t understand. Psychologists and psychiatrists don’t know themselves, I don’t blame them, they are going blind pretty much. Tragic, really.

To be fair, it seems to be shifting in the recent years. In depression treatment there is now an added emphasis on mindfulness, meditation, allowance and emotional release, and some psychologists have themselves had spiritual experiences. There’s even a branch called “transpersonal psychology” which is working, if my understanding is correct, on ways to transcend, rather than rebuild (parts of) ego as the outcome of a depressive episode. But these views are still not mainstream, especially in other countries, which all followed the US leadership in prohibition of psychedelics very shortly. Depression is still more or less taboo in the society, although it’s slowly getting better, very slowly.