Latest studies have revealed that use of psychedelic drugs does not increase the risk of mental health problems. The study involved analysis of data from 135,000 randomly selected participants – including 19,000 people who had used drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms.
The study showed that use of these Psychedelic drugs does not reveal any increased risk of developing mental health ailments later on in life.
Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim had also conducted a study earlier and had conducted population study investigating associations between mental health and psychedelic use. The study involved analysis of data in between 2001 to 2004.
Author and clinical psychologist Pal-orjan Johansen says, “Over 30 million US adults have tried psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of health problems.”
Co-author and neuroscientist Teri Krebs feels, “Drug experts consistently rank LSD and psilocybin mushrooms as much less harmful to the individual user and to society compared to alcohol and other controlled substances.”.
The study envisaged the study of data obtained from the US National Health Survey (2008-2011) consisting of 135,095 randomly selected adults from the US, including 19,299 users of psychedelic drugs.
The researchers did not find any link between the use of psychedelic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms and symptoms of mental illness like psychological distress, depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts.
Krebs said, “Many people report deeply meaningful experiences and lasting beneficial effects from using psychedelics.”
However Johansen was quick to acknowledge the pitfalls of such studies and therefore considering the design and the mode of the study the researchers cannot rule out the negative effects of such drugs on certain individuals.
Johansen said, the researchers cannot “exclude the possibility that use of psychedelics might have a negative effect on mental health for some individuals or groups, perhaps counterbalanced at a population level by a positive effect on mental health in others.”
The details of the study are published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Not dangerous enough to outlaw except for the government’s misuse of them, dosing people unawares & other abuses to make weapons of these wonder healing drugs!