The audience this essay is intended for is the medical community and Drug Enforcement Agencies worldwide. This essay covers the topic of psychedelics, and it was not a random topic but inspired by my curiosity and personal research before this essay. My friend’s mom conducts psychedelic research to gain approval from the FDA to make micro-dose psychedelic medication available with a prescription. This essay is a testament to her work and many others’ that are trying to help mentally ill individuals reclaim their life and remove the false stigma behind psychedelics. This essay brings evidence from multiple sources to prove the clinical potential and benefits that psychedelics have to offer. 

Regarding language and literacy, writing a scientific research paper has given me a clear insight on how to effectively deliver proper evidence to help my audience understand the validity of my point. To do this, I had to locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine, and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias. All four criteria for evaluation were extremely important as I put together this essay because credibility speaks for itself. Credibility was a necessity as I wanted to be using reputable sources but on top of that, this is an essay that is dissecting, analyzing, and synthesizing scientific research findings so I made sure that my sources would be the content I am directly referring to. News outlets were used for the general background so my audience would be able to easily digest the information-heavy content I speak about, and I encountered many student researchers’ papers but avoided them as I considered other factors for evaluation: accuracy and bias. Student papers tended to evaluate the findings of other papers instead of drawing conclusions from their own experiments, which did not align with what I was looking for. On top of that, the accuracy behind their papers seemed questionable as I would read the abstracts and find discrepancies that would neglect the credibility of my results. Bias was clear in a few as psychedelics are a niche that some teenagers and young adults share and try to clear or enforce the stigma behind hallucinogens, but this could make some parts of my research essay invalid as I try to present scientific findings and add my separate take on psychedelics. 

Another course learning outcome that was heavily involved in this project was to compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation. All these strategies were essential when composing this essay and are expected, due to the nature of the essay. Frequently, my body paragraphs follow the same strategies to effectively deliver information that readers can understand. I set up background before introducing the information from my sources. Once I introduced the information, I summarized that information for the main takeaways my reader is trying to find. I critically analyzed the information, breaking down implications, conclusions, and further questions that the information may have had. This part was essential because I understand the value of providing analysis of the information’s importance and what is being said and created. I added some personal takes where I added my own interpretation of what was being said and then synthesized the information from sources used throughout the text. This was a step that I was not the most familiar with, so I tried to put as much effort into that strategy because I realized that synthesis is crucial for research progression. While weaving summaries, paraphrases, and quotations from multiple sources and my own knowledge and claims, I was able to connect information and strengthen claims that I presented in my essay and tried to support using evidence. Finally, we have argumentation which is, without a doubt, the essence of a research paper; you conduct research to prove something true or false or discover something new.  

While the main learning outcome was the strategies used to integrate several different strategies, sources and my personal stance, this essay demanded me to practice systematic application of citation conventions as well. Although this was used in every essay, it was especially crucial for this paper because my essay derives from the thoughts and ideas of many scientists who have conducted many hours of research and deserve credit for. After reflecting on this essay, despite the ability to choose my topic, this essay demanded my best efforts. It required me to focus on the last 3 course learning outcomes the most, which required the most writing and perfection considering the difficulty in preparing and delivering an essay that followed all the criteria in the learning outcomes. 

 

A Mushroom and The Magic Behind It 

Psychedelics, specifically psilocybin mushrooms (referred to as shrooms/magic mushrooms), are classified as a Schedule I drug, which means it is one of the most dangerous drugs, yet they have been shown to cure and solve many psychiatry issues. Psychedelics carry a negative stigma, but these natural drugs have been shown to help people who suffer from mental illness throughout history. The medical community has been experimenting with psychedelic assisted therapy as doctors and scientists are trying, yet again, to extract substantial evidence from their clinical trials to convince courts to rule psychedelics safe to use for medical and research purposes. There is a repeated history of psychedelics showing promise in the medical and pharmacy field, yet it is ignored because of an outdated and inaccurate classification. Schedule 1 is a label for drugs that have no accepted medical use in the United States, because they can put a person at a substantial risk for developing a substance use disorder. Yet, scientific research has found that psilocybin mushrooms and LSD do not develop any addiction. Psychedelics should be cleared for medical use and classified as a less dangerous drug because it has never been a substantial risk of substance misuse, has many limitations for medical research that can create ground-breaking discoveries and can help people who suffer from mental disorders and addictions. Psilocybin mushrooms have been applied in scientific research as clinical studies demonstrate the effectiveness of psychedelic assisted therapy for people who suffer from specific disorders such as eating disorder, compulsive behavior disorder and substance abuse disorder. Psychedelics can be an essential asset to the world as the medical community tries to successfully treat the large growing number of psychiatric patients and research into the many other possibilities these drugs can provide. 

  Hallucinogenic drugs are classified as Schedule I drugs despite science proving that it is nowhere near as dangerous as its label suggests. In fact, considerable evidence shows that the MDR, European Medical Device Regulation, are not based on the scientific evidence of the risks of these drugs. (Howard 2) Scientists argue that there is more than enough evidence to prove that England’s MDR has wrongful classification as drugs that are scheduled less than psychedelics and marijuana have shown substantial abuse liability and scored significantly higher on all 16 harm criteria. Howard breaks the schedule apart, compares substances from different classifications and whether it makes sense given the way they are classified. Schedule I (S1) drugs have no accepted use at all whereas Schedule II (S2) drugs do. Howard mentions cocaine, an S2 drug, being much more of an abuse liability and harm to the human body because when they tested cocaine for the 16 harm criteria, it exceeded all 16 compared to 6 criteria met by shrooms. The classifications are clearly not regulated to be used as it is hindering significant development within the medical and pharmacology world because of outdated assumptions. This ties in with the limitation scientists in the psychedelic assisted therapy region of research face because of hypocritical rulings and that is what prevents ground-breaking research. The rulings being that cocaine, a highly addictive drug with consequences of nasal canal collapse, borderline personality disorder and death, can be medically administered and researched while psilocybin mushrooms, a drug with researched beneficial medical use, cannot be administered under any circumstance. However, scientists like Dr. Michael Bogenschutz conduct essential research to support scientists like Annie Howard and their claims of fixing the drug classification system and clear psychedelics for medical and research use. 

 Dr. Michael Bogenschutz, the director of the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, held what may be the first randomized, controlled trial of psilocybin for alcohol use disorder. The medicine world is facing a new exploration into psychedelic-assisted therapy, which is showing promise as experiments continue to be conducted and results show that psychedelics can be a much more efficient alternative for mental health and addiction treatments. The results of Dr. Bogenschutz’s experiment supported this claim as psilocybin mushrooms were able to directly benefit people who struggle with addiction, specifically alcoholism. “At the end of the trial, half of those who received psilocybin had quit drinking altogether, compared to about one-quarter of those who were given antihistamine.” (Sullivan 1) Compared to participants who took antihistamine pills during the eight-month trial, participants who took two doses of psilocybin pills showed twice the amount of improvement the antihistamine group did. Compared to regular treatment they had a 50 percent increase of completely quitting alcohol. These rates of improvement are highly significant and testaments to the fact that psychedelic-assisted treatment is effective. The results of Dr. Bogenschutz’s eight-month trial, 50 percent of people who took psychedelic-assisted treatment quick alcohol altogether, clearly show the significance and efficiency of psychedelic assisted treatment.  

Bogenschutz’s and Howard’s efforts in supporting and proving the needed purpose of psychedelics share the same goal and ideas. Bogenschutz conducted research to show the falsehood of psilocybin mushrooms’ classification considering that he proved that psychedelic assisted therapy facilitates people who suffer from alcohol addictions. Annie Howard’s driving point to either allow S1 drugs to be well-researched or lower the schedule on psilocybin mushrooms for medical and research use is woven with Bogenschutz’s experiment as he proves exactly why we should research and use psychedelics in a positive way. Howard also adds in a section called Current research limitations of S1 drugs that most research on psychedelics are “open-label proof of concept designs” due to research limitations (Howard 3). These concept designs end up convincing the ACMD, UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, that psychedelics promise no future and will instead tear away at the efforts of the ACMD to keep its country safe from drug misuse outbreaks. Hence, Annie Howard tries to call for the ACMD to review their position on S1 drugs. NBC also reported Bogenschutz’s appeal to the FDA to allow this type of treatment for addiction. These two share the connection of appealing to government organizations for medical research clearance and establishing the clinical potential of psychedelics.  

Scientists Tristan D. McClure-Begley and Bryan L. Roth offer their take on the Psychedelic Renaissance, this period where there is an increase in consideration and its reemergence in research, as they dissect promises and perils of psychedelic pharmacology. Most of the first 3 pages explain psychedelics as a whole and goes into further explanation of the effects psychedelics induce mentally and physically. Additionally, the scientific paper explains the biological processes once psychedelics are taken and the receptors in our brains that must activate to create the psychedelic induced state of mind and body. However, in the Psychedelics as Therapeutics section of their paper, they elaborate on the history, ongoing processes, and clinical trials and most importantly, results from assorted studies. They mention only 3 Phase II trials and present the findings in a table. The first trial was psilocybin for anxiety and depression in individuals with life threatening cancer. There were 2 groups: 14 participants using psilocybin and 15 other participants using Niacin. The control group was tested for anxiety and depression and used Niacin (Vitamin B3). The outcome of this trial was an improvement in anxiety and depression. The second trial was the same as the first one except the control group this time were administered low-dose psilocybin. The experimental group had 25 participants and the control group had 26 participants. The outcome of this trial was also an improvement in anxiety and depression. The third and last trial was psilocybin versus escitalopram in depression. (Escitalopram is an antidepressant used for generalized anxiety disorder and mild depression.) The psilocybin group had 30 participants and the escitalopram group had 29. The outcome resulted in improvement in depression for both psilocybin and escitalopram (Begley 469). The data extracted from the table was dense with information, but the conclusions for all trials agreed: psilocybin promotes and creates improvement for people with anxiety and depression. The trials also compared psilocybin with other alternatives yet psilocybin, in 2 out of 3 trials, showed higher performance and efficacy than the control groups of niacin and low-dose psilocybin, respectively. Not only does psilocybin effectively counteract what it promises to, it is also a better and more effective alternative compared to the other solutions. This directly ties into the thesis as this table of data demonstrates psilocybin’s potential to aid people who suffer from anxiety and depression. This also adds to the promise of potential psilocybin has on the psychiatry world. 

This psychopharmacology research paper is a bit more specific as it tries to pair existential psychology with psychedelic science so that people who suffer from death anxiety or existential anxiety. Sam G. Moreton and others take the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics and mesh them to counteract these anxieties. With the research provided, taking psychedelics is almost healthy to do sometimes for anyone. “Many existential psychotherapists have long maintained the need to confront death for people to live meaningful lives (May 1967; Yalom 1980). … Pertinently, psychedelic experiences frequently involve thoughts of death and deep confrontations with one’s mortality (Leary et al. 1964; Pahnke 1969).” (Moreton 25). In this paper, they delve even deeper with the essence that death anxiety is common and many people without it still want to confront death so they can feel some sort of spiritual enlightenment. Both needs are addressed properly with psilocybin because it produces feelings of death transcendence commonly through people and has caused many ego dissolutions. These ego dissolutions or deaths are actual feelings that aid people with death anxiety to get over it as they surrender themselves once to death and then no longer feel the physical fear of death. This shows the extent of purposes and needs psilocybin has in the psychiatric medical field. It has appeal and solutions for various mental illnesses and shows potential as a beneficial recreational purpose. Based on the past two sources, psilocybin is guaranteed to reduce clinical anxiety and depression, can create more solutions from its extensive list of unknowns and establishes its credibility as a drug that should be cleared for medical and research use. 

Both Moreton and Begley share similar ideas while coming from two different approaches and purposes as Begley’s research includes much more qualitative data and Moreton focused on the practical theory of use as it dissects the effects of psychedelics, the needs of death anxious patients and how psilocybin would be ideal to give people relief from death anxiety. However, Moreton’s practical theory research is an extension of Begley’s research as Begley establishes psilocybin’s clear and direct correlation with improvement from people suffering from anxiety and depression and Moreton creates practical theories using the proven effects of psychedelics and the requirement to solve death anxiety and claiming the solution could be psilocybin mushrooms. While Begley was much more qualitative, structured, and explanatory, Moreton researches and accepts psychedelics’ mysticism framework which is not a great way to establish credibility in a scientific paper. Moreton’s paper does include a multitude of external source references that support the idea of psychedelics having too many limitations on its research and medical purposes and the simple fact that psilocybin helps people cope with anxiety and death. 

All this evidence begs the reason psilocybin has not been classified less severely and some scientists point to the fact that it is risky to accept a framework associated with supernatural belief systems. Like we have seen hints of in Moreton’s research, more risks, and difficulties with accepting a mysticism framework are explored with researchers James W. Sanders and Josjan Zijlmans. These scientists believe that accepting psychedelic science will prove troublesome because it may create an easy excuse where researchers are happy with treating certain aspects of this science as otherworldly or alien. “This is in line with the concept of “psychedelic exceptionalism”: when psychedelic experiences are taken to be “so sacred or important that the normal rules do not apply.” (Sanders 1254) This exceptionalism would be as futile as psilocybin never being cleared for research because it will foster a level of laziness where much significant research is not being done due to exceptionalism. Not only will this cause mediocrity in research development, but it may also create more difficulty for future generations to research. If science states that psychedelics induce mystical experiences that are key to their therapeutic action, this will be easily misinterpreted as research advocating a role for the supernatural or divine. Claiming something within a huge national science research organization such as the American Psychological Association is mysticism would mean absolute catastrophe as the accuracy and integrity of information is crucial to people who have jobs dedicated to discovering latest information. Besides the terminology and research aspect, there is also the obvious factor of having a bad trip. Having a bad trip is much more significant than it sounds because trips tend to be profound and enriched with deep meaning and a bad one will affect you just as much but negatively. Bad trips are commonly associated with paranoia ranging from extreme to mild. 

After examining all these sources closely, psilocybin needs to be further reviewed for clearance in medical and research purposes. The benefits are clear, and the counterargument is contingent on the APA fearing this category of science having controversial opinions and drugs taken without medical purposes. While these are reasons to avoid psychedelic science, psychedelic science has proven its correlation with providing relief to people with anxiety and depression, proven that more research is needed because this science has a lot of potential and has severe limitations on its research and medical purposes. It is important to grasp the idea of psychedelic assisted therapy because this is the future. Frequent and recent problems around the world such as technology affecting our mental health, inducing anxiety and even depression require modern solutions. A plausible solution can be psychedelic assisted therapy, as we have seen how effective it is and how unreasonable it is to stop using technology. For people who have clinical depression or anxiety, this solution is also miraculous given its benefits and superiority over other alternatives. These natural drugs have also always been in use among many celebrated people such as Albert Einstein, Jimi Hendrix, and Steve Jobs; these pioneers of technology, theory, and music all vouched for the benefit of mushrooms as they all described it as open-mindedness. Psilocybin mushrooms clearly have more benefits than drawbacks and should be reconsidered from being a Schedule I drug. 

Bibliography 

1. Moreton, Sam G., et al. “Embedding Existential Psychology within Psychedelic Science: Reduced Death Anxiety as a Mediator of the Therapeutic Effects of Psychedelics – Psychopharmacology.” SpringerLink, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 29 Nov. 2019, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-019-05391-0. 

1. Annie Howard, Joanna C. Neill, and Charlotte Lennox “Schedule 1 Barriers to Research in the UK: An in-Depth Qualitative” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20503245211049313. 

1. “Does Psilocybin Change Your Brain? How the Ingredient in Magic Mushrooms May Ease Addiction.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/psilocybin-mushroom-help-people-alcohol-use-disorder-rcna44180. 

1. “Cartoon Humor, Political Cartoons, Comics, Illustrations.” CartoonStock, https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoon?searchID=CS107731. 

1. “The Use of Psilocybin in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders with Attention to Relative Safety Profile: A Systematic Review.” Taylor & Francis, https://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02791072.2022.2044096. 

1. McClure-Begley, Tristan D., and Bryan L. Roth. “The Promises and Perils of Psychedelic Pharmacology for Psychiatry.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 17 Mar. 2022, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41573-022-00421-7. 

1. Fotiou, Evgenia. “The Role of Indigenous Knowledges in Psychedelic Science.” AKJournals, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1 Mar. 2020, https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/4/1/article-p16.xml?body=contentSummary-13617. 

1. 1. Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science – American Chemical Society. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsptsci.1c00097.