Ask people what they think people who are on psychedelics act like…and more often than not, they’ll describe news stories they’ve seen or read–stories that include how people on bath salts or PCP (angel dust) commit irrational and sometimes violent acts.
They are also the ultimate clickbait stories and lead to a lot of misinformation that surrounds most common hallucinogens. Tales like these have helped spread propaganda that’s helped hold back some promising therapeutic uses for classic psychedelics for decades.
In spite of all the misinformation out there, there are two studies that strongly suggest what many in the microdosing community have known all along –that people using classical hallucinogens such as magic mushrooms become less violent.
UAB Study Shows ‘Shrooms Mellow You Out
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Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggest that psilocybin, the psychedelic that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms, makes individuals statistically less violent and less likely to steal or assault others. The UAB researchers published their work in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
The authors explained their findings, saying they found that people who had used psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca, and peyote at least once were about
“12 percent less likely to have assaulted someone, 18 percent less likely to have been arrested for a violent crime, and 27 percent less likely to have stolen from someone than people who had never taken the drugs.”
The University of Alabama conducted the studies from 2002 to 2014, and they relied on data collected from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey for their research. Data they collected included survey responses from over 480,000 study participants.
The research team focused heavily on answers the respondents gave to questions about their recreational use of drugs, and on whether they had committed a crime or been arrested for breaking the law in the past year.
The study authors wrote,
“Simply put, the positive effects associated with classic psychedelic use appear to be reliable,” the study’s authors wrote, calling the research ‘compelling rationale’ for more clinical research, despite ‘political hurdles’.
The dissociation between these classical psychedelic drugs and violent crimes made the researchers think that there is a correlation between these drugs and their influence in making people less physically aggressive toward others overall
Of the UAB study, the authors also wrote,
“These findings are consistent with a growing body of research suggesting classic psychedelics confer enduring psychological and prosocial benefits.”
Because of that conclusion, the UAB researchers additionally proposed that psychoactive substances could be a possible solution to repeat offenders in the penal system. They said drugs such as ‘shrooms could be given as therapy to convicts who were arrested and released from prison to keep them from committing crimes again.
Recidivism is an issue in the penal system since 33 percent of people who commit a violent crime will more than likely be rearrested for a similar crime later.
The study conducted at UAB was more anecdotal than clinical, and its survey results can only be regarded as valid as the honesty of the respondents who self-reported from 2002-2014.
Additionally, the fact that the study was only a statistical analysis means that it doesn’t say anything about the way these psychedelic drugs work to deter people from committing crimes of a violent nature.
So psychonauts, cheers to the researchers working hard on potential psychoactive therapies! Their work may one day lead to innovative treatments to reduce violence and more.
And–going back to the introduction and for the record –PCP is a dissociative drug and bath salts are an analog of cocaine. Both are very different from classic hallucinogens such as LSD and magic mushrooms. As such, their effects will be completely different.
Classic hallucinogens such as psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, and DMT act by working on serotonin. They alter perception and mood and are not considered to be addictive, even though people may seek them out for use because of the way they make them feel.
