Who Will Own the Future of Psychedelics?

[Editor’s Note: Welcome to “Please Trip Responsibly,” a series of OpEds exploring areas in which the psychedelic community (and the burgeoning industry growing around it) can do better at becoming a unified front. We’ve inherited both wisdom and wreckage from cannabis, and there are plenty of lessons we’d be fools not to integrate: mistakes to avoid, values to uphold, and strategies to adopt if we want this movement to mature with integrity.

These essays dig into everything from the false promises of psychedelics as a one-size-fits-all cure for addiction, to the dangers of overconsumption in public, to the corporate vultures circling above. Altogether, they offer a reminder that the future of psychedelics isn’t inevitable. It’s something we have to shape with care, foresight, and responsibility. Whether we like it or not, we’re all in this together, so let’s be smart, bold, and above all, let’s trip responsibly.]

Weirdos, acid freaks, and mushroom dorks, lend me your ears. It is long past the proper time for a community discussion about how We the People should conduct ourselves to ensure a future that works for all who deserve a seat at what is sure to be a wavy-ass table. 

By “We The People,” I’m generally referring to everyone in the psychedelic community, from the brand owners to the casual consumers. As players in a budding market, I want to start by saying I commend you all for the willingness to engage in business and activity that could very easily land you in federal prison in the name of the greater good. I think I speak for the majority when I say that your sacrifice is appreciated by psychedelic enthusiasts worldwide. I urge you all to consider the path ahead so that the sacrifice is not in vain. 

It’s not a stretch to say some form of nationwide psychedelic legalization is around a not-so-distant corner. We can only speculate what FDA approval or broad, state-level legalization will look like, but I can assure you that it will be grim if we don’t pull together and agree on a common vision that we can advocate for together. Pharmaceutical executives are probably chuckling as I write this, picturing themselves swimming through a Scrooge McDuckian-sized pile of cash once they bring a (trip-free) psilocybin drug to market. But we can still make some strategic chess moves to ensure we retain ownership, have input on the legislative structure, and maybe — just maybe — hold onto the freedom to possess and ingest our beloved tryptamines at will.

If we can all agree that decriminalization, broad legalization, and a complete dismantling of the psychedelic arm of the drug war should be the north star here — among other things like real social equity (and not tokenization), retention of ownership, plentiful access for people to access medicines, and so on — then I have some suggestions to propose. Mostly, because we need to ensure we’re moving strategically, intelligently, and integrating the many lessons available from what we’ve seen in the cannabis industry (stay tuned for a future article that covers this more in depth). For the sake of brevity, I’ve limited myself to three suggestions: Be an example of safe consumption, use your platforms to educate as much as possible, and get involved locally. Let’s expand, shall we? Come on this journey with me. 

We Have to Be the Grown Ups

We have an overconsumption problem as a community, and on a regular day, brother, that’s fine. Take as much LSD as you can fit in your mouth if you want; it’s none of my business. I’m impressed, if anything. But to pretend that Congress isn’t paying attention is just skull-numbing naivety. 

The powers that be, the alphabet people, every version of the word “fed,” and a president with the temperament of a crate of dynamite are just waiting for a reason to take away what little bargaining power we have. Hell, they’re probably going to do it anyway, but we have to try a little. As a community, we need to preach proper, moderate consumption. We need to steer clear of the narrative that macro-doses should be a daily or even weekly thing. It seems that many educators and practitioners in the space are already doing that, but there are still many people who are unequivocally not (see Reddit, for example, if you don’t know what I’m talking about). We need to prove that we are capable of making what the non-drug user community would refer to as “adult decisions.” 

I’m really not trying to be a killjoy. Trust me, if anyone’s guilty of taking way too much acid for way too many days in a row, it’s yours truly. All I’m saying is that we, as a community, need to limit our more exploratory doses to private — and safer — settings. Don’t trip your tits off at events and keep your journey (and possession of said substances) fully off of the internet. Frankly, we’ve gotten way too comfortable with that shit. It’s still wildly illegal to possess, consume, and sell psychedelics pretty much everywhere in the world, including California and the majority of the United States. The fewer felony charges we rack up, and the more we prove ourselves to be capable of making decisions that don’t scare the soccer moms, the better our chances will be of passing laws we can live with, and maybe actually like. Unless your goal is to restrict psychedelics only to terminal cancer patients while ramping up harsher penalties for everyone else, then by all means drop a 100-strip on Instagram Live and let it ride.

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