Op-Ed: Psychedelic psychotherapy – Just another moneymaking exercise?


ByPaul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL
February 4, 2024

Image by © Tim Sandle.

The constant drone in the news about legalization of psychedelics in therapeutic roles is becoming a roar. What’s missing is any sort of coherent “this does that” information. Big money for psychedelic startups is also stirring in the depths of investment land.

…Which leads to a poignant question: So what?

Faddish use of microdoses has been around for years if not decades. It was a buzz thing in Silicon Valley for at least two minutes back when. Mental health is not the most reassuring of subjects for discussion, either. Mental health medications are more famous for problems than solutions.

In this rather turgid environment, the only solid information is that “someone would like to market psychedelics and make money from them, please”.

A pretty common critique is that there’s a lack of evidence for psychedelics in therapeutic roles. There’s some traction in that. Many traditional cultures use psychedelics for spiritual purposes, but not specifically as therapy.

To be fair, many respected research institutions are looking at psychedelics. This clearly isn’t all hype, but it’s a far from simple subject, too.

For example – Can a psychedelic trigger a psychotic episode in a person with mental health issues? How do you make sure to avoid that risk?

This is brain chemistry, and it’s tricky. If you know anything at all about depression, you’ll know the balancing acts involved. Anxiety is pretty grim, too, and you may not even know what triggers it or why.

There are supposedly thousands of psychedelics. How do you choose? How do you know what you’re getting? What’s the psychedelic equivalent of “bath salts”, for instance?

The market for these drugs are people in various conditions from baffled and bewildered to those understandably very wary of more heavily hyped meds that don’t work.

The health sector has done itself no favors with its current image of a purely moneymaking environment for consumers. Trust is no longer a factor in therapeutic options. Goldman Sachs said years ago that “curing patients wasn’t good for business”, and apparently the sector believed them.

So did the world’s much-gouged consumers. Any kind of faith in a new therapy good or bad is going to be colored by that motif. The fact that you can buy some of these new therapies on the street without the consultancy fees doesn’t add much lustre to the idea.

There’s another issue. Psychedelics are a very broad range of types of drugs. Organic psychedelics like mushrooms and mescaline are definitely not the same as synthetics like LSD.

People react very subjectively to these drugs. Some people are hyper-receptive, and the drugs simply don’t work on others. Some people don’t hallucinate on LSD. There’s no One Size Fits All.

Public perception of mental health isn’t exactly a major asset, either. The degree of general ignorance is pretty high at best. Add psychedelics and you have a particular mix of ignorance and ineptitude.

For instance:

How will bosses feel about people “tripping” at work?

How much stigma can you attach to someone with mental health issues in any environment?

Is management literate enough to get basic ideas like they’re there to manage, not to judge?

How long will it take for the world’s much-too-intelligent media to brand anyone taking these drugs as “hippies”?

If they had a clue, what would they do with it?

The merits of psychedelics as therapy are yet to be proven or disproven. The possibility of drivel is now 100%.