For two or three years, I have attended from near and far the ” boom boom », the revival of psychedelic mushrooms, better known in medical or psychiatric circles under the name of psilocybin, its active substance. Acquaintances, colleagues and friends of all ages, from 18 to 70, administer themselves in micro or macrodoses of ” mush » to calm their anxiety, overcome their depression, their melancholy or their post-traumatic stress, when it is not to propel their creativity or their productivity. “All the directory of the UDA microdose at the moment, jokes a friend close to the middle. It became the coke 2020s! »
Where cannabis and alcohol have failed, where antidepressants have not been more effective than a placebo (according to studies, for mild to moderate depressive states), psychedelics have taken over for some.
Prescribed by the Dr Web to curious volunteers, ancestral medicine tested on generations of adepts was used by Aboriginal people millennia before Prozac or Paxil. Psychiatry was already multiplying clinical studies in the 1950s—with some success—but was abruptly stopped in its tracks by President Nixon in 1970. The festival of cosmic brotherhood and kaleidoscope visions was over. Make Vietnam War, not love. The dissolution of the ego will be for another time.
While the use of psilocybin has been permitted in Canada as part of assisted therapy since this year (the use was canceled under Harper), the framework in which people try psilo is much broader and can even help, according to some studies, to eliminate dependence on alcohol and cigarettes. Sounds too good to be true.
“If you deal with this subject in your column, it means that you have already taken it”, pointed out to me with a smirk a friend in his thirties. Indeed, but for literary research purposes only and under medical supervision with two doctors, a shaman and a midwife, all vaccinated.
Reading a plum jam recipe and tasting my plum jams is a totally different experience. Some sensations are difficult to translate into words, such as the impression of being “one” with the universe.
Not at all secret societies
On September 22, the Psychedelic Society of Montreal organized a day of conferences on psilocybin. Étienne Billard, its director, is a postdoctoral researcher in pharmacology at McGill University. He is interested in the effects of psychedelics (LSD too) on neurons: “We want psilocybin to be legal and accessible, that users are not criminals and can receive an education on this subject. There is no addiction associated with LSD and psilocybin. »
The 32-year-old scientist has been interested in drugs since the age of 12 and has made it his field of research. “There has been a revival in scientific research on this subject for anxiety and depression for about twenty years. On the other hand, there is no proven effectiveness for microdosing. There is certainly a fashion effect at the moment. More research would be needed. Pharmaceutical companies are already on it. It’s a race for a patentable synthetic compound without the hallucinogenic effect. For us, it is important that psilocybin is not a model that remains only in the hands of psychiatrists. »
To comment on the spot and to define in words a moving situation or a complex coenesthetic state is to put oneself in the way of what one feels. It’s getting away from it.
Without a family doctor, Marc, a 29-year-old professional, attempted to treat self-diagnosed moderate depression during the pandemic with psychedelics. He tried psilocybin in microdoses and twice in macro for a few months. He preferred LSD to psilocybin. ” The mush, it’s more interior, it increases introspection, he notes. I was more aware of people, of my environment. It helped me realize some things, but it doesn’t do the work for you. Marc had read the book Journey to the ends of the mind, by journalist Michael Pollan, and watched the documentary Fantastic Fungi on Netflix. “These experiences with psychedelics gave me a new perception of the world, I learned about myself. It makes you grow like no one else. It’s not addictive, but when I was microdosing, I was taking it every three days and I couldn’t wait to get back to that more perceptive state…” He’s had no trouble quitting since.
A normal revolution
For medical anthropologist Jessica Cadoch, this revolution expected by many users is not a surprise. The 28-year-old Montrealer studied at McGill University and settled in Denver, United States, for two years as an ethical consultant for companies that promote the therapeutic use of psychedelics. According to her, the laws are slowly changing towards legalization, she told me by videoconference from Colorado.
“Several cities have decriminalized the use of psilocybin in the United States, such as Denver, Washington, Seattle, and the State of Oregon has even legalized it for therapeutic use. We won’t be in the same place in 15 years, it will be a different mentality. »
On the other hand, Jessica is wary of what Big Pharma will do with it. “You can’t patent psilocybin. It is a potential market, and we are in a capitalist market. The communities must organize themselves so that there is not just one model. Psilocybin is not like alcohol: there is no lethal dose. The “set and settings”, the mental state and the environment in which you take it, are important. If you have a history of psychosis, you have to be careful. It could happen. But there are also risks in climbing or taking medication. »
I learned more about the brain and its possibilities during the five hours after taking the mushroom than during my fifteen years of study and research.
The medical anthropologist sees in these therapies under influence, which sometimes cure people in a single session, a promising avenue: “We all suffer. We all need help. Our current mental health system is not having the expected success. Antidepressants that you have to take for life only offer a Band-Aid. »
Is the psychedelic threat medical or rather cultural, political and economic? This is perhaps the question.
Usage advice: Consult a doctor before administering illegal substances and self-diagnosing yourself with a mental illness. Namaste.