Denver — Months after Colorado voters decided to join Oregon in decriminalizing psychedelic mushrooms, Denver will this week host a conference organized by a psychedelic advocacy group, with speakers including an NFL star, a former Republican governor and a rapper. An unlikely group of will be brought together.
The convention and the thousands expected to attend signal a creep, or perhaps a leap, of cultural acceptance for psychedelic substances, which proponents say may offer benefits for things like post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism. Still, medical experts caution that more research is needed on the drugs’ efficacy and extent of risks.
NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who will soon debut with the New York Jets after years with the Green Bay Packers, has been open about his ayahuasca use in the past and is set to speak Wednesday. Rapper Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith, who has publicly shared the “ego disintegration” he experienced when using psychedelics, will also speak in Denver, as will Rick Perry, the former Republican governor of Texas who has been working on researching psychedelics. is a lawyer. Potential benefits for veterans experiencing PTSD.
The hosting organization, The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, is the largest US advocacy group. It took a strategy to reach the full political spectrum, said Nicolas Langlitz, a historian of science who researched the boom and bust of the psychedelic movement.
“Overall, this strategy has been quite successful,” he said. “In a time when a topic becomes politically polarized, the irony is that these super polarizing substances now have bipartisan support.”
Still, Langlitz said, the conference is “purely designed to generate publicity,” which may exaggerate the potential benefits but also drive further funding.
“Overselling of any kind is not good for science because science needs to be precise rather than rush things,” he said. positive results.”
Psychedelics are illegal at the federal level, although there has been increased acceptance and interest in studying their potential benefits. For example, some researchers believe that psilocybin, a compound in psychedelic mushrooms, changes the way the brain organizes itself and may help users overcome things like depression and alcoholism.
The drugs themselves – and the interest in them – is nothing new. In the middle of the last century, writers Aldous Huxley and Ken Kesey helped promote the use of psychedelics during the counterculture movement, and increased optimism among some psychologists on the drug’s ability to enhance the human psyche.
But the Nixon administration criminalized psychedelics and forced them underground.
Michael Pollan, author of a book on psychedelics and who spoke at the conference, said, “In both cases you have this surge of euphoria that may or may not be irrational.” “But I think a big difference (now) is that the enthusiasm for the potential of psychedelics cuts across a much more representative slice of the population – it’s not about a counterculture.”
Republican strongholds, including Utah and Missouri, are considering launching studies into the drug, partly inspired by veterans’ poignant stories. That’s why, although he stops short of promoting recreational use, Perry has become an unlikely flag bearer and helped pass a bill in the Texas legislature in 2021 to fund studies of psilocybin as a treatment for PTSD.
In Congress, successful proposals to fund psychedelic research for PTSD in veterans led progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York and far-right Rep. brought Matt Gaetz into an unlikely alignment.
Public interest is also increasing. Just six years ago in Oakland, California, the multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies held a conference with nearly 3,000 attendees and a host of lesser-known speakers and die-hard supporters.
This time, organizers anticipate at least 10,000 attendees. Other well-known speakers will include Daniel Carsillo, former NHL player who owns a company specializing in psychedelic remedies; Olympic silver-medal figure skater Sasha Cohen; comedians Reggie Watts and Eric Andre, Top-10 podcaster Andrew Huberman; and Carl Hart, chair of the psychology department at Columbia University.
The American Psychiatric Association has not endorsed the use of psychedelics in treatment, noting that the Federal Drug Administration has yet to offer a final determination. The FDA designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” in 2018, a label designed to speed the development and review of drugs to treat the serious condition. MDMA, often called Ecstasy, is also a designation for PTSD treatment.
Pollan and Langlitz both believe that further research is important — especially as the country is facing an unprecedented mental health crisis and people are struggling to find adequate treatment. But, Langlitz said, it’s important to let the research shape the narrative.
“I’ll just try to keep my mind open to the possibility that in retrospect we’ll tell a very different story than the one the protagonists of psychedelic therapies are currently predicting,” he said.
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Bedan is a core member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.
