I am a proponent of the use of psychoactive substances, for healing, spiritual, and therapeutic applications. I believe these substances have a place in our society, and all would benefit from legalization. I have had a few experiences that I take very seriously. I don’t respect boasts of how many drugs someone has taken, i have a deeply sincere respect and fascination for these substances. Additionally I’m not covering how we should regulate use, I just want for people to re-examine the stigmas attached to psychoactive drugs.

    Gaining more perspectives on psychoactive substances will help you form your own view of these substances, rather than relying on social taboo. For example, if you have the opportunity to vote on a bill related to hallucinogens, or know someone that may benefit from alternative therapy, you will now know more about this sensitive topic. The current mainstream view on hallucinogens is one based in political bias and  assumptions, yet when you strip away all of the baggage associated with these substances, you can begin to have a holistic understanding of their existence and use.

    Drugs are a very touchy subject. Users and non-users alike have a personal and emotional stake in whether or not they are legalized. Therefore, it is very difficult to come to a neutral standpoint on this topic. But when we acknowledge that many of the so-called “facts” are skewed in favor of the opinions of the people in power, we realize that much of the information we are taught about drugs cannot be the holistic view. These biases lead to sweeping generalizations about drugs, which cause people to close their minds to some drugs. For example, take the toxicity and addictiveness of psilosybin versus alcohol. Alcohol is much more addictive by nature and over a long period is ultimately more toxic. The drugs that we have legalized, such as nicotine, sugar, and fermented sugar (alcohol), are intensely more addictive and toxic to the body than many illegal drugs. 

    I understand that in biology, all kinds of chemicals are used for communication in all organisms. Chemicals used by cells just like we use language to communicate to each other. We could conclude that a plant’s language is it’s chemical messengers. Apples are practically screaming “eat me” with their sweet, crisp flesh. They want you to eat them, they benefit from this relationship because the eater spreads their seed. All of our food does this, so that its species can continue. Corn and wheat have become major staples, and the species has benefited from that. The way that plants or fungi communicate with us are through these chemical pathways, they exhibit a persuasive power that coerces our minds into feeling, an emotion, or something similar. I believe that psychoactive substances are not that much different than food in this way. 

    Which brings me to my second point. The chemical messengers in food could be linked to our hunger drive, satiating our appetite. Psychoactive plants work in the same way; they satiateour desire to enter altered states of consciousness. Andrew Weil, a consciousness theorist and pharmacologist, believes that this desire to alter consciousness is an innate human desire, not much different from hunger or sex drive. In fact, cultures around the world have used hallucinogens regularly throughout human existence. During the 60’s modern people began to rediscover ancient traditions where psychedelics play a major role. But their knowledge upon the subject was limited, and people didn’t know how to deal with these substances safely.

    Psychedelics have the power to heal. Given the rise of social, physical and mental disorders in our society, it would be wise to find alternative solutions in place of the ineffective pharmaceutical options. The legalization of hallucinogens will be synonymous with a direct move against the pharmaceutical industry’s rule over the way we think about healing and medicine. Johns Hopkins University is studying psychedelics. They studied the effects of “magic mushrooms” and did a press release back in 2006. HOPKINS SCIENTISTS SHOW HALLUCINOGEN IN MUSHROOMS CREATES UNIVERSAL “MYSTICAL” EXPERIENCE. You can find it here on youtube  by CNN. When I first ran across this a few years ago, I was so thrilled! I wanted to show everyone, “look, look, this stuff that’s banned, it’s a miracle!” in the article Spiritual Effects of Hallucinogens Persist, Johns Hopkins Researchers Report confirms that “14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.”  Mushrooms have been used in cultures longer than our records. There is much, much more to this study.

    Ibogaine is another miracle drug. If we were to legalize ibogaine in America and use it as abundantly as we administer methadone, we would have the most effective method of treating heroin addicts. It hails from Africa, the Bwiti are a west African religion who use ibogaine in coming of age ceremonies and other initiation rites and acts of healing. It has astounding anti-addictive properties. Ibogaine is now used by treatment clinics in 12 countries to facilitate detox and chemical dependence to substances such as methadone, heroin, alcohol, cocaine, and meth. The primary effects last around 24 hours where a user usually goes through a period of introspection, which gives them a chance to move on from the hangups in their past. Erowid states, after their Ibogaine treatment, patients began to see their drug use as destructive. Its basically a death and rebirth experience, where the addict “dies”, and their true self can flourish.

    Basically psychedelics are a way to shift your consciousness, just as we all already do. These substances are just another means of true nature communicating with us. Its completely natural for people have the desire to alter their consciousness. These illegal substances have enormous potential for healing us of psychological disorders.

    References: 
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwiti
Johns Hopkins: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/07_01_08.html
Erowid: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/ibogaine/ibogaine_faq.shtml
Andrew Weil: The Natural Mind
Terence Mckenna quote: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9243.Terence_McKenna

Image via Wikipedia

The Fly Agaric mushroom, or Amanita muscaria, is a common mushroom found in the coniferous forests of Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Siberia and Scandinavia. It starts off as a small button resembling many other mushrooms, but it eventually matures into a rather beautiful fungus with a large, globular red cap flecked with white scales.

A poisonous mushroom related to the lethal Death Cap (Amanita phalloides) and Destroying Angel (Amanita virosa), Fly Agaric is known for causing hallucinations and psychedelic sensations in those who ingest it. The mushroom contains alkeloids called muscimol and ibotenic acid, which are responsible for its psychoactive effects. Some species contain the similar alkeloids psilocybin and psilocin, found in common “magic” mushrooms.

In Lapland and Siberia, the reindeer who live there are quite fond of this mushroom and will go to great lengths to find it. Shepherds and farmers of the region would feed the mushroom to their reindeer to keep the herd intact, or to lure back those that became lost. The mushroom’s potent effect on humans was discovered by accident thousands of years ago, when shepherds became intoxicated after consuming the meat of reindeer who ingested the fungus.

Soon after, the shepherds also discovered that drinking the urine of reindeer who ate the mushrooms not only caused hallucinations, but it went a long way too. Since the mushroom’s psychedelic ingredients are not metabolized by the body and remain psychoactively potent even after being ingested and excreted, the urine could be consumed and re-consumed up to six times before losing its effectiveness. The shepherds seemed to prefer taking their ’shrooms this way, as passing them through the reindeer first seemed to deliver the drug in a more refined form, making its effects similar to LSD.

The shepherds and farmers, when faced with harsher times, figured out that they could also get high from drinking their own urine after they had ingested the mushroom. They would carry flasks of it for themselves and also for the reindeer, who quickly took a liking to it and would eargerly seek it out. It”s not hard to see how the legend of the flying reindeer originated with the Sami people of Lapland!

If one was too poor to afford reindeer, it was common practice to drink the urine of the stoned upper classes. This is likely the origin of the concept of “trickle-down economics”, and it is believed to be the origin of the phrase “getting pissed”, which pre-dates inebriation by alcohol by several thousands of years.

The first travelers to Siberia observed that the many tribes there used Fly Agaric for ritualistic and entertainment purposes, and even today it is used by the village shamans of Siberia and Lapland. It was used in Northen Europe for recreation and spiritual purposes long before vodka was imported from the East. In 1976, the American mycologist Jonathan Ott suggested that the use of Fly Agaric in the Midwinter festivals of deepest Siberia may have inspired some of the modern feautures of Santa today.

The traditional Siberian dwelling, called a yurt, was made from birch and reindeer hide. It had a smoke-hole in the top with a birch pole to support it. During the Midwinter festivals, the village shaman would enter the yurt through the smoke-hole, carrying a bag filled with dried mushrooms or flagons of urine, either from reindeer or the shaman himself. Or he would have fresh mushrooms, which he would hang in stockings over the fireplace to be dried. Sometimes the mushrooms would be strung together and hung over the fire, a practice echoed in the tradition of stringing popcorn to decorate the Christmas tree. After performing the festival ceremonies, which typically involved everyone present getting sufficiently stoned on the mushrooms, the shaman would climb back up the birch pole and exit through the “chimney”. The people thought that the shaman and his reindeer could fly.

The practice of leaving gifts under the tree may stem from the fact that the Fly Agaric, the most sacred Amanita, grows under evergreen trees. The shamans would pick them and hang them from the tree to dry. Placing gifts under the Christmas tree (which is traditionally an evergreen tree) mimics nature and is symbolic of the “treasures” created by it.

Our modern Santa bears little resemblance to the original St. Nicholas. In fact, he is a much more accurate representation of the Siberian shaman, who often donned red and white robes in tribute to the sacred mushroom. A side effect of eating Amanita mushrooms is flushed skin and a ruddy glow (Santa’s rosy cheeks and nose), and it is reported that those under the influence of Fly Agaric tend to laugh and bellow a euphoric, “Ho ho ho!”.

Today, Christmas cards with pictures of Amanita mushrooms remain common in Central Europe, and the Fly Agaric mushroom is still the emblem of the region’s chimneysweeps.

So this Christmas Eve, after sending your children off to bed with visions of sugar-plums in their heads, don’t forget to leave the cookies and milk out for Santa. He’s bound to have the munchies!