Psychedelic Research Did Not Stop in the 60s Solely Due to Drug Prohibition

There is a common narrative in psychedelic culture that early psychedelic research – which flourished in the 50s and 60s – was abandoned in the 60s because of then US President Richard Nixon’s ‘War on Drugs’. However, while drug prohibition was certainly a contributing factor, it was not the sole reason why psychedelic research slowed…

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Navigating the Legal Landscape of Psychedelics

If you are interested in having a psychedelic experience, you may be put off by the prohibited status of many psychedelics. This is understandable. Ideally, no one would want to pursue an experience that involves committing any crimes. Fortunately, there are still many legal psychedelics you can possess and consume. The purpose of this article…

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Should All Drugs Be Legalised?

This is the dissertation I wrote for my Philosophy undergraduate degree in 2012. Some of the statistics may be a bit out of date, but recent developments in drug liberalisation (such as in the US) and research on the illicit drug trade – as well as the therapeutic application of certain illicit drugs – are still…

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The Dark Side of Private Prisons: Greed, Corruption, and Injustice

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the existence of private prisons, most notably due to malpractice in the US. Private prisons do exist in the UK as well (which has the most privatised prison system in Europe), but they are not as popular as in the US and they do not engage in the…

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The UK Could Learn From Colorado’s Legalisation of Cannabis

The recent legalisation of cannabis in Colorado and Washington state – not to mention Uruguay, the first country ever to legalise cannabis – serve as experiments for the pro-legalisation argument. So what is the result of these recent legalisation measures? Are we seeing a monumental increase in the number of cannabis smokers? Are people dying…

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