Unless you’re living under a rock, you should have heard the word that psychedelics are becoming the new medical darling, with the idea of a legalization on its way. What does this mean though? Will we all be tripping on acid, or going to ayahuasca ceremonies, or playing around with magic mushrooms? Well, its possible, but maybe not right away. There are some realities to a psychedelics legalization, and some things to understand.
Is a psychedelics legalization on the way? Could be, but maybe not how you think. The US government is edging closer to the idea of allowing medical use, while different states are floating policies for recreational use. Stay tuned to life to find out what happens next! For more articles like this one, remember to subscribe to the Psychedelics Weekly Newsletter, your #1 source for everything related to this rapidly growing industry.
Are psychedelics legal now?
When it comes to many things in the US, there is a federal truth and a local truth. This goes for both cannabis and psychedelics as well. Cannabis has been federally illegal since the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, with more stringent laws added to create a complete illegalization by 1970. However, if you’re really not living under that rock, you also know that there are huge legal cannabis markets in the US, but only in certain places, and each individual place with its own individual market.
That’s because America has States rights, which are actually ‘personal rights’, or anything that isn’t established by the US constitution, and which therefore can be argued in the Supreme Court. These rights enable laws to be made that run counter to US federal law, and cannabis is a prime example. 18 states now have legal, regulated recreational industries, or are on their way to. The number should be 19, but South Dakota had its publicly voted on measure taken away by its government. Nearly 40 have comprehensive medical programs, while even many of the remaining states have at least a minimal allowance for something cannabis related.
Psychedelics on the other hand were illegalized much more recently, though some of them only came about more recently. While entheogenic plants (which constitute natural psychedelics) have been used for millennia, synthetic psychedelics like LSD and ketamine were only invented within the last century. Psychedelics first became illegal in the US through the Staggers-Dodd Act of 1968 – though this only applied to mushrooms and LSD.