Checks and Balance: LSDecriminalise

Checks and Balance from The Economist

The Economist

Politics, News & Politics, News, Us Politics

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Voters in Oregon have approved a law allowing people to take psilocybin, the psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms. Users will be able to apply to go to a licensed facility and take the drug with the help of a trained supervisor. The evidence suggests that this could successfully treat mental health issues. Should psychedelics be more widely available?

Veteran Jesse Gould explains how an ayahuasca trip helped to cure his PTSD. We go back to an outlandish covert CIA operation. And Harvard’s Dr Mason Marks tells us if Oregon’s approach could be replicated elsewhere.

John Prideaux presents with Jon Fasman and Charlotte Howard.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In February 1966, Stuart Brand sat on a rooftop in San Francisco, looked out at the city
0:10.6	skyline and thought he could see the curve of the Earth's surface.
0:16.0	Tripping on LSD, Brand realised, as he later put it, that if we ever got a photograph
0:21.6	of the Earth from space, it would change people's perspective on everything.
0:26.4	He thought that seeing an image of the whole Earth would help humans realise how connected
0:30.3	they were and how much they had in common.
0:34.1	Brand started lobbying NASA to release one, and in 1972 he got his wish.
0:39.4	The image taken by the Apollo 17 crew, and known as the Blue Marble, was shared with
0:44.0	the world.
0:46.0	Against the pitch black background of space, Earth is stained dark blue by the Atlantic
0:50.8	and Indian oceans, which surround the sand and green of Africa and the Middle East.
0:56.4	The snow of Antarctica covers the base, and dashes of bright white cloud formations are
1:00.9	splashed over the top.
1:03.1	It's now one of the most recognisable photos ever taken.
1:07.0	But without Stuart Brand's drug-induced trip, we may never have seen it.
1:12.3	50 years later, is it time to overturn the ban on psychedelics?
1:17.7	I'm John Prado, this is Checks and Balance from the Economist.
1:24.8	Each week, we take one big theme, shaping American politics, and explore it in depth.
1:36.8	Today, should psychedelic drugs be more easily available?
1:42.8	In 2020, voters in Oregon approved a proposal that would allow people to take psilocybin,
1:56.4	the psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms.
1:59.3	It's a cautious approach.
	...

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