Psychedelics "Tripping" into Capitalism

    The conversation of making psychedelics legal in the United States has been a hot button topic for a long time. While many people consider, and many studies show, that there are multiple benefits to the legalization, there are still people that disagree with the topic. Many big pharmaceutical companies have started to put large amounts of money into these tests and studies that will be a pivotal role in deciding whether these can be legal. The people that disagree don’t think that there are enough benefits in this new medication comparative to the medication that are already currently in use.

    The chemical in “magic mushrooms” that produce the psychedelic effect in humans is psilocybin. When psylocibin is ingested into your stomach it goes through a chemical change that converts it into psilocin, which your body can then digest. This psychedelic effect has many different views for different people depending on how much you take, and your mindset can even change your perspective. People have had multiple different results when taking psilocybin whether you have an effect of seeing visuals or you can have deeper thoughts that people say have even changed their mindset in certain situations. I know I personally have had multiple different experiences when taking these exact mushrooms being different depending on the certain situation I’m in, how I’m feeling mentally, and even just the amount of dose I have taken.  Many people fear trying psychedelics in their life because of the bad stigma that is around it and while that is understandable, there has been a huge resurgence in people wanting to try psychedelics and people even claiming that it has helped them get though tough situations in their life.

    Currently one of the largest pharmaceutical companies that have been making a push to run studies is Atai Life Sciences. Billionaire Peter Thiel, who you may know as one of the founders of PayPal, has made large donations and funding to this company as he sees the huge upside it could have in everyday problems people suffer from. This company is currently running 9 different trials of drugs to test their effectiveness and ability to help people with problems such as headaches, anxiety, OCD, and even eating disorders. Against popular belief, these drugs have even shown to be effective in certain substance abuse with some drugs. There are still many tests that will need to be run to prove the full effectiveness of these drugs but in the preliminary stages there are many upsides being seen. Atai Life Sciences has even teamed up with a Japanese pharmaceutical company, Otsuka, which made it officially the first psychedelic-based biotech and big pharma collaboration. This is a huge step in the future possibilities of what could come in this field and have an immense amount of potential to come.

    In November of 1938, a Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann was attempting to work with medicine and create lysergic acid which is typically an aid in migraines. When a slight mishap occurred, he ended up creating lysergic acid diethylamine, better known as LSD, was derived. After finding this compound, he accidentally tested it out then feeling slight dizziness and even feeling the hallucinogenic effects. Once this substance was derived, he started to test and use psilocybin and even started spreading these substances around to different scientists and different campuses to spread the word. This started a widespread use and testing of these substances and from 1950 to 1965, this was considered the “Golden Age” of psychedelics. This was the name of this time due this being the period with the most studies occurring on psilocybin and LSD getting the most info that we have had on these substances ever. With an increase in use in recent years, the studies have started to increase more now leading us to a possible new “Golden Age” of a more recent time.

    Psilocybin and psychedelics were on a great path until some controversies started to come up with certain scientists. In 1960, Dr. Timothy Leary started the Harvard Psilocybin Project which was a major program that was looking into studying mushrooms and the effects on people. In 1962, it was found out that Leary was administering these drugs to his students causing a bit of an outrage in the community. This led to him being terminated from his job at Harvard and being ridiculed for what he did. After he was fired, and the tests were put to an end, psilocybin and LSD were spread around the Harvard and other very large campuses all around the nation. This led to students and other young kids “fighting back” against the establishments and either wanting to drop out of school or not join the war effort in Vietnam. Many students did not want to go into the draft or help in the war because they simply felt that it wasn’t their war to fight in and this led to what is known as the hippie movement of fighting against “the man” and wanting to disassociate from what their parents have taught them and brought them up on. 

    The government, obviously upset and thrown off by this new revelation, the FDA made psilocybin and LSD illegal. This made psilocybin a Schedule 1 drug mean max punishment if caught and meant that studies would no longer be allowed or funded by private companies or the government. This was a huge step by the government in their war on drugs and a huge time to getting even more strict in these battles.

    In the recent years since psilocybin and other psychedelics have started to be more widely accepted, certain nonprofits and large associations have been conducting research and studies again. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, better known as MAPS, is the leading nonprofit that has started most studies to determine the health benefits and possible aiding. The DEA and FDA have signed off and slowly been allowing these studies to be allowed as states have been considering legalization. In a study from 2006, John Hopkins, one of the leading institutions that is testing these specific drugs, have shown that psilocybin has a deep spiritual significance and brings personal meaning back to people. Rick Doblin, the president of MAPS, has come out saying that psilocybin and other psychedelics is very effective in psychotherapy and other mental treatments.

    Now after all these studies have been coming out showing the possible benefits of psychedelics in everyday pharmaceuticals, there are still many people that are against the idea. One large concern is that if people are given these doses of medicine, you would not be able to drive or use heavy machinery due to the psychedelic and hallucinogenic effects. Without the guidance of actual trained professionals, people are also typically worried there would be chances of misuse and abuse either recreationally or by self-medicating. There are also the beliefs that why would the use of psilocybin in therapeutic methods even be needed when there are already existing methods of therapy such as already existing antidepressants that are known to work. There are also ethical and ecological concerns for medicine that would be derive from natural sources since areas would need to be scoured or there would need to be farms built directly to obtain these items. After so many years of the government being against the use of these drugs, it is a little curious as to why suddenly, the government is fully ok with funding and allowing studies again. Are psychedelics such as psilocybin as effective as they are stating it is or is this one large cash grab that we know is typical in all types of governments and specifically capitalistic ones such as the United States.

    Now Atai Life Sciences may be one of the largest companies working in this field, but they are far from the only ones since this field is growing so much. Compass Pathways is another large company that has been making great strides in the field and is receiving great funding from Atai Life Sciences who is a major shareholder. Compass Pathways has conducted the largest clinical trial in history of psilocybin therapy to date and they are proving a lot of the great upsides that could help benefit people. Another large company is the company Cybin who is focusing mainly on the treatments of depressive orders which is a major problem in the world of mental health. Numinus Wellness is also a major player in this field as they have been trying to work with purely natural extracts of psilocybin. Some of their largest tests being run by Numinus is being funded and helped by MAPS which was stated earlier as the largest association that is working with psychedelics. Some of these companies may not be the largest most common household names but large companies even like Pfizer has started to dip their toe into this type of research leading to larger implications in this field.

    Now all this talk about studies and companies running them, but that all doesn’t matter unless there are states that are moving to either decriminalize or fully legalize these substances. In 2020 Oregon was the first state to make the huge step and decided to legalize mushrooms meaning that people could recreationally use them, and even grow them themselves. Connecticut has also started to make strides into legalizing mushroom use for first responders and veterans. This group of people is right in line for the group of people who would be the prime users of this medication due to the higher possibilities of stress and PTSD based off their high stress careers. Texas, Utah, Washington, and Maryland have all put forward funding within their state to execute studies to find out if the legalization would be worth it and if not, they didn’t have to make the full jump preliminarily and can gain all the facts of the benefits or potential downsides. California and Colorado both have bills underway in their legislation and New Jersey is also looking forward to introducing a bill where use could be widespread and have a helping effect. With so many states already looking to legalize these substances, one can only wonder how long till psilocybin is taken off the Substance 1 drug list and used for medical reasons.