Hallucinogens

Depicted in movies and popular music and pop culture as a way to “Expand Your Mind”, hallucinogens have been circulating in modern society for over fifty years and doing a lot of damage along the way. Some of the names are, shrooms, angel dust, hell’s bells, and acid. Acid, also known as LSD, is the granddaddy of these drugs in terms of strength and unpredictability.

Colorado legalized psilocybin with Ballot Proposal 122 in November’s midterm elections. But did advocates for psilocybin legalization properly inform voters about the drug before asking them to vote on it?

Addiction is such a pervasive problem in America that one in eight Americans suffer from this problem. Grasping the extent of the problem is a vital first step to resolving it successfully.

If a drug has the potential to create mind-altering effects in those who use it, then that drug has the potential to cause harm. And while hallucinogenic drugs do not cause the high overdose rates or critical public health crises associated with other narcotics, such substances are still physically and mentally debilitating and overall quite harmful. This article aims to cover basic trends in usage and the statistics surrounding hallucinogen abuse in the United States.

Ketamine has been used recreationally in the U.S. for some time, but only recently have usage rates increased significantly, and only recently has the drug become a major drug of concern. Law enforcement offices are reporting spikes in ketamine busts and seizures, and hospitals are increasingly reporting ketamine chemicals in ER patients.

Newly published research into youth drug use trends indicates an alarming, unpredicted surge in hallucinogen use. Those who are now hooked will need help getting off such drugs. Further, understanding what prompted the surge will be crucial in preventing more young people from experimenting with mind-altering drugs.

According to a recent study, the use of hallucinogens among young people doubled between 2018 and 2021. The findings indicate a concerning shift in youth drug use trends with far more American adolescents, teens, and young adults experimenting with potent mind-altering hallucinogenic substances than in years prior.

After trending up and down for decades, LSD use is at its highest level in many years. There are certain distinct causes for this rise—but are any of them valid? Are the effects of this new LSD experimentation likely to be positive or negative?