Drugs and the meaning of life. Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness.

We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions like love and avoid others like

loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We

read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts. Every waking moment and even in

our dreams, we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion and cognition towards

states of consciousness that we value. Drugs are another means toward this end. Some are

illegal, some are stigmatized, some are dangerous, though perversely these sets only partially

intersect. Some drugs have extraordinary power and utility, such as psilocybin, the act of

compound and magic mushrooms, and like surgic acid diethylamide, LSD, pose no apparent

risk of addiction that are physically well tolerated and yet one can still be sent to

prison for their use. Whereas drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, which have ruined countless

lives, are enjoyed at libido and almost every society on earth. There are other points

on this continuum, MDMA or ecstasy has remarkable therapeutic potential but is also susceptible

to abuse and some evidence suggests that it can be neurotoxic. One of the great responsibilities

we have is to educate ourselves along with the next generation about which substances

are worth ingesting and for what purpose and which are not. The problem, however, is that

we refer to all biologically active compounds by a single term, drugs, making it nearly

impossible to have an intelligent discussion about the psychological, medical, ethical, and

legal issues surrounding their use. The poverty of our language has been only slightly eased

by the introduction of the term psychedelics, to differentiate certain visionary compounds

which can produce extraordinary insights from narcotics and other classic agents of

stupuffaction and abuse. However, we should not be too quick to feel nostalgic for the

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