What about people who did psychedelics and got severe anxiety, depresion, panic attacks? Why the dark side of using drugs is always forgoten. It feels like cartels invested in PR - upside only.
What about the poor people who jumped out of windows or in front of traffic while on psychedelics? Oh yeah, that doesn't happen, because the govt has had a decades long monopoly on fear mongering BS when it comes to psychedelics.
As someone who now occasionally suffers panic attacks due to psychedelic use, I agree: people downplay the risks because it suits their personal narrative and experience. Perhaps as a pushback against years of over-exaggeration re: risks, per another poster, but nevertheless a definite under emphasis on the dangers these drugs pose.
That's the problem; in general, in popular culture, psychedelics are marketed as the end of your anxiety and the reset button for your brain and that type of thing.
For some people that may be true; but for many of us, these drugs only make our brain reel faster and faster until it just goes full blown into fight or flight mode.
I'm with the other posters. I believe people should be able to put whatever they want into their bodies (as long as they fully understand what they're doing), but also should absolutely know that panic attacks, and ongoing anxiety disorders could be a side effect.
Source: My anxiety disorder that exists now after recreational hallucinogen use for about a decade.
Yeah, a reasonable discussion includes both benefits (your experience) and risks (mine). The former has recently been getting all the air time.
This isn’t a “both sides” argument wherein some highly unlikely hypothetical is trotted out to debate the consensus. Plenty of people have had bad experiences with long term ill effects.