Are Psychodelics a Habit Forming Drug?

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Like most psychadalics, they're not habit forming. We need to develop a container for people who are not mentally ill and want to use these drugs for self exploration or spiritual development. I think we're going to see some psychodelic churches popping up in america. And that some day soon, you may be able to go to the church of lysurgic acid. The way they treat heroine is right now - if you enter into this government supported programme, they will give you a prescription for it. It's much safer than using an opiate or methemphetin its a form of self medication. So we have to ask ourselves: what is the disease

When you start your day with a cup of tea or coffee you are ingesting a consciousness-altering drug, which you are quite likely to be addicted to. That drug of course is caffeine, the stimulant used by 90 per cent of people on earth, and it is one of three mind-altering molecules that bestselling author Michael Pollan has been investigating for his new book This Is Your Mind on Plants, alongside morphine, produced by the opium poppy, and mescaline, found in certain cacti. In conversation with the medical doctor and broadcaster Guddi Singh, Pollan explores humanity’s longstanding and powerful attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and why do we then hedge this desire with laws, customs and fraught feelings? And why do we categorise these compounds so reductively – calling them either a licit or an illicit drug? For, as Pollan will argue, when we take these psychoactive plants into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways possible. Click here to get the Intelligence Squared discount on the book: https://www.primrosehillbooks.com/product/this-is-your-mind-on-plants-michael-pollan/

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices