Are you comparing psychedelics to sugar and social media?
Unless psilocybin is thoroughly tested and validated as a treatment that is as safe as SSRI, I don't think it's really worthwhile to jump into the psilocybin train.
In a sense, yes - I believe the damaging effects of sugar and social media on the society is far greater than psychedelics might have if decriminalised.
They definitely don't deserve to be Class A in the UK and Schedule I in the US. Even more so, they shouldn't be classified as Schedule I by the United Nations.
I'm not sure about using it regularly, but people have been using these for ceremonies for centuries. I personally believe the choice should be left with an individual.
Fortunately, "as safe as SSRI" is a pretty low bar.
Should we also compare the risk of addiction/dependence? Oh, yes, lets do!
Hey, while we are at it, shall we also compare effectiveness? 2 doses vs 6 weeks? Oh, wait, that's what the study did.
I wonder how many different types of psilocybin they had to test to find the effect one for these particular patients. Because, you know, getting the "right" SSRI based coctail is actual quite hard, many people go through three or four different variants before finding the one which they think works.
Yes, I'll bet they had to compare at least as many types of psylocybin before they found the combo that worked. Right?
SSRIs are notoriously NOT safe. In younger people, they often increase suicidal ideation. Even in adults, there is a very dangerous period when you first start taking them where suddenly you have more energy, but you are still massively depressed. People die because before they were so depressed they couldn't even take action to suicide, and the drugs give them just enough of a lift that they can.
Apart from that, there's the massive list of side-effects, many of them extremely common.
Complete loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, or worse, your libido is unchanged but you completely lose the ability to orgasm.
Insomnia, cause that's what a depressed person needs, even less sleep and more time for rumination in bed.
Akathisia, which is an uncontrollable need to move your body, think restless leg syndrome but it's your entire body. You literally cannot sit still.
Less life-destroying but still very obnoxious: increased sweating, dry mouth (which can ruin your teeth if you don't manage it with biotene or gum or something), blurred vision, headaches, the list goes on.
This is without even mentioning the risk of serotonin syndrome yet, which can straight up literally kill you if you don't make it to a hospital. It happens when your serotonin level is too high, and can cause seizures, fever, arrhythmia, or death.
They definitely don't deserve to be Class A in the UK and Schedule I in the US. Even more so, they shouldn't be classified as Schedule I by the United Nations.
I'm not sure about using it regularly, but people have been using these for ceremonies for centuries. I personally believe the choice should be left with an individual.