In the nineteen-nineties, bands like Father John Misty and Chance the Rapper were talking about mushrooms; Hamilton Morris started documenting his psychoactive adventures for Vice; and a group of organizations including the drug policy think tank DanceSafe, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and the encyclopedic drug Web site Erowid coalesced around a broad cultural reevaluation of America’s prohibitionist, anti-psychedelic legacy. Psychedelics were becoming part of a new hippie culture, a kind of spiritual drugs movement with an emphasis on personal growth and self-discovery, in addition to their medicinal benefits. Find out https://heysero.co/

The resurgence of psychedelics in popular culture coincided with a surge of research on the therapeutic potential of these substances. Psychedelics—including MDMA, ketamine, LSD, and psilocybin—have been shown to help with depression, addiction, and other psychiatric issues. They appear to work by changing the way the brain’s “default mode network” functions, allowing stuck patterns of thought to shift.

The Legal Landscape: Exploring Psychedelics and Canadian Regulations

Some, such as psilocybin and LSD, are known to produce visual hallucinations; others, including ecstasy, change moods and create a sense of connectedness with others; still others, including ketamine and the plant drugs ayahuasca and peyote, act as anesthetics and may also cause dreamlike states. Psychedelics also seem to be promising for treating some kinds of cancer, although research has been limited and the studies recruit patients who already have an interest in these drugs.

For many of these substances, it’s essential to have a pre-drug session with a therapist who can provide a safe and supportive environment. Nikhita Singhal, a psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto, is one of the researchers behind an experimental study on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD in cancer survivors. She and her colleagues have found that the drug can relieve symptoms by reducing activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain that processes fear.