It’s official. I just receive a U01 grant from NIDA to study #psilocybin for tobacco addiction. To my knowledge it's the 1st grant from the US government in over a half century to directly study therapeutics of a classic #psychedelic. New era in legitimacy of psychedelic science.

And to be clear - I've also met many of the most kind and humble people in my life in the psychedelic field. My point is more that it's a mixed bag, just like the rest of humanity. You certainly get the extremes.

With all the momentum with psychedelics, this is the perhaps most important, ignored policy issue. Psychedelic medicine supporters will be astonished if/when MDMA & psilocybin are FDA approved but almost all of these substances remain schedule I. Spreading the word can help change that. @Ravarora1 illusionconsensus.com/p/psyc…

Sounding the alarm - if MDMA & psilocybin are approved by FDA, most MDMA & psilocybin could still be scheduled I, wildly inconsistent with the science. @Ravarora1 & I lay out the case for why we need to avoid a "bifurcated schedule" that only reschedules the commercial FDA approved product. Please repost & spread the word! illusionconsensus.com/p/psyc…

Excited to present psychedelic research with @DrDavidRabin at the Beyond Wonderland meeting in Austin. Tickets still available wonderlandconference.com/

My pick for worst drugs would be the volatile anesthetics like ether or, even worse, volitile solvents like gasoline and toluene. Huffing gas is perhaps the most toxic drug use by humans. But notice that we use education and regulation, rather than forbidding the substance, to address the problem.

Just submitted my comments to the federal posting, recommending against this move. Some of the comments already posted are wild. Anonymous posts calling for the abolition of the DEA and Controlled Substances Act, or to schedule alcohol and tobacco, are not a wise strategy. They might make one feel better as an activist, but they might result in the opposite of the intended effect. Respectfully describing the relative lack of public harm associated with these compounds, the modest (but not absent) abuse potential of 2a agonists (including apparent lack of addiction), the medical development and medical potential of this general class of psychedelics, and the barriers to medical development that accompany a Schedule 1 placement, are wiser approaches if you want to have an impact.

Please consider participating in the Psychedelic Community Survey by Daniel Kruger and team! sunybuffalo.qualtrics.com/jf…

Please check out this event next Tuesday In London 7pm when we'll explore psychedelic treatment of tobacco addiction! lnkd.in/e79KQEyW Hosted by the Psychedelic Society.

I hope there will be broad bipartisan support for this psychedelic bill. The text looks great on my initial read. And despite the name, it provides mechanisms to facilitate the development of psychedelics broadly (like the EO did) and this can include psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, etc. as well as ibogaine.

Lee & Shlain’s Acid Dreams shows that much of the MK Ultra records were destroyed before their forced release. O’Neil’s Choas goes further in showing that even the horrors that were released were likely the light stuff. Many clinicians & scientists working with psychedelics are not aware of the success in using psychedelics to brainwash people. The profound behavioral plasticity that can help you re-write your trauma story, damaged self-image & relationship with addiction can also be leveraged for darker purposes. Even without nefarious motives, clinicians can reinforce people’s erroneous new “memories” of childhood abuse experienced during sessions. They can reinforce various new scripts of victimhood. And scientists/therapists can indoctrinate people into their own spiritual worldview. Psychedelics can help people but wielding their power responsibly in a scientific or therapeutic role requires substantial wisdom and humility.