Last week one of the producers of the show "The Doctors" on
CBS contacted me and he said he'd seen one of my videos about
microdosing. They were filming an upcoming segment on
psilocybin mushrooms and he wanted to know if I'd be open
to sharing my microdosing story on prime time. Of course,
I was super excited by this. I wrote back and said, "Absolutely!
I'm an open book." The producer just had one more question
to ask me.
"Are you being medically supervised for this?"
he said. I wrote back and I explained to him that it would
be impossible for me to receive medical
supervision because psilocybin mushrooms are a controlled
substance in Canada
and also in the U.S.
It would be impossible for any medical professional to legally
prescribe a microdosing protocol -much less monitor one
for me.
I was kind of surprised that the producer didn't seem
to already know that. He wrote back and he said, "I completely
understand but unfortunately our legal team won't let us
feature anybody who is receiving what we deem to be a medical
procedure without third party medical
supervision." So because of that, the interview couldn't
go on. I was really disappointed. This whole incident made
me take a step back. I know on this channel, my
microdosing videos are the top performing videos on this
channel. I also speak about mental health, depression, meditation,
etc. (all those other related subjects). But I know the micro-
dosing videos are my top performing videos.
I wouldn't consider myself an expert on psychedelics and
it's one of the reasons why I haven't made more videos
about psychedelics.
It's because I myself only started my microdosing journey
earlier this year. But this incident with the producer —at
this point in my journey —realizing that microdosing
is something that can transform lives —macrodosing even
still... the more I learn about it, the more I become such a
proponent of this practice. But then to also see all
the misunderstanding surrounding this topic, the stigma
surrounding it, and the arbitrary legal classification for these
substances under the law. Because of that, to see that
so many people aren't able to access what could be so transformative for them.
Today, I want to take a few steps back and I want to make
a video about the risks of microdosing. In this video,
you're also going to receive a mini history lesson about
how drugs like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms became schedule
1 substances to begin with. The first risk of microdosing,
of course, is its lack of legality.
I live in Canada and I know many of you guys live in the
U.S. The drug laws surrounding the purchase and possession
of drugs like psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and DMT are similar in
these two countries and that it is completely illegal to
purchase and possess these drugs. In the U.S. for example, LSD
and psilocybin mushrooms are classified as a Schedule I drug
under the Controlled Substances Act.
By definition, Schedule I drugs are drugs that have a high
potential for abuse and have no currently accepted medical use in
treatment. This is hilarious,
of course, considering the fact that these drugs are neither
chemically addictive nor medically
useless. In fact, in Canada last year, four end-of-life patients
recently received a legal exemption to pursue psilocybin-
assisted therapies to aid in their anxiety and depression.
It should also be noted that even though psilocybin mushrooms
and LSD are not legal to buy and possess, prosecuting people
for doing so is not a priority of law enforcement. Or so
I've read. Of course, things become a lot more nuanced when
you consider that the War on Drugs is often disproportionately
applied to communities of color. I've read so many varying statistics
surrounding this; whether it's the fact that white people
are more likely to use drugs than black people or that they're
likely to use drugs at the same rates,
but yet black people are disproportionately more likely to
receive criminal punishment for doing so. Honestly, I
started digging into this and
I just found so many conflicting statistics. But the resound
-ing conclusion is clear.
The War on Drugs
is disproportionately applied to communities of color.
So it wouldn't be entirely honest for me to sit here
and say that your risk of being prosecuted for purchasing
and possessing drugs like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD is
very, very low.
Maybe it's very, very low for certain people but I don't have
the confidence to say that it is the case for everybody.
Oh and also apparently in every country you can buy mushroom
spores legally and grow your own mushrooms (even though it's
really tedious and I wouldn't recommend that to anybody). Apparently
if you live in the state of Georgia and a few other states,
buying mushroom spores is also illegal for you.
So... sorry about that. Risk #2: lack of research into
the long-term effects.
The therapeutic benefits of psychedelic
drugs is a whole is an area
that is sorely lacking in scientific research. The hallucinogenic
effects of LSD were first discovered by the Swiss chemist
Dr.
Albert Hoffman in 1943.
Hoffman was an employee of the pharmaceutical company Sandoz
Laboratories. In 1949,
LSD was introduced to the U.S. because Sandoz thought LSD could
have clinical applications. And they were right.
In the next two decades, scientists would produce over a thousand
studies that linked psychedelic drug use with beneficial
outcomes. By the mid-1960s, over a million people in the US
were taking LSD —in most cases recreationally and under no
clinical supervision.
Naturally, horror stories about certain instances of use cases
started to spread. At the same time, opposition to the Vietnam
War was rising and so was a growing counterculture movement.
Some government officials took this opportunity to further demonize
psychedelic drugs, blaming the disruptive changes in society
on recreational drug use. In 1966,
everything came to a head when the U.S. federal government
banned the production, trade, and ingestion of psychedelics
and for the next 40 years,
it was as if all of that promising clinical research that
had been conducted prior to the ban —had never existed.
So that was my really long-winded way of saying that if you
are hoping to look to the science to give you a resounding
answer as to whether or not you should macrodose or microdose
(and to what extent)... When it comes to macrodosing, your odds
of finding your answers are higher, but when it comes to
microdosing, there really is nothing to suggest to us what
the long-term effects of microdosing are. We know a huge
reason for this is because the research on psychedelic drug
use has undergone a 40-year period of nothingness.
It's been stifled for 40 years. Because of this lack of evidence
that exists, every single one of us who has microdosed or macro-
dosed and has gotten beneficial outcome from it
—We become representatives,
so to speak, of a wider community of open-minded people.
Maybe that is an honor that we should treat as
a sensitive honor for the time being.
I don't know.
Sorry, didn't mean to get preachy. The good news is (going back
to what we were saying now) —the good news is that we are in
a era of the Psychedelic Renaissance.
As of the taping of this video, I am so thrilled to say
to you that several new psychedelic drug research projects
are underway. In 2019, the Harm Reduction Journal even published
a qualitative study on the effects of microdosing, where
they gathered input from over 270 participants.
This study is neither perfect nor comprehensive, but it's
a start. If you're interested in reading it, I'm going
to provide a link to it in the description box below. All
of my citations
are going to be linked in the description box below
as well.
And before I move on to my next point, I also want to make
a book recommendation to you. Psychologist
James Fadiman is known for his extensive work in psychedelic
research. In 2011,
he wrote a book called the Psychedelic Explorers Guide, which
explores microdosing as a subtopic of psychedelic
use. James Fadiman's microdosing protocol is widely seen as
a standard —or at the very least, it is the most evidence-based
standard that we have to date. James Fadiman's protocol
is the protocol of "One day on two days off."
So that means 2 to 3 microdosing days per week, five weeks
of doing this, followed by at least a week-long break period.
Actually, if you're new to microdosing, I would highly
recommend his book (also linked in the description box below).
Risk #3: adverse effects for some people. While I
am a huge proponent of the safe and responsible use of psychedelic
drugs, my research has indicated to me that psychedelics
aren't for everyone. For a small segment of the population,
the use of psychedelic drugs can induce adverse effects such
as mania or psychosis.
If you have bipolar disorder, schizophrenia , or heart conditions,
you should take extra measures to verify if microdosing
is something you can do.
I would consult with all of your medical professionals. Even
though they won't be able to recommend microdosing to you,
they can certainly warn you of the adverse effects of
microdosing that are specific to your condition.
Like I said earlier, everything comes with the risk and unfortunately
for some people, the risk is even greater.
That's it for today's video.
If you liked this video, please consider giving it a "like"
and commenting down below.
I love reading all of your comments and I try to respond
to every single comment because, truly, it's something that
I really enjoy and look forward to. I will see you guys next
week. This is just the beginning of an entire series that
is going to be ever-blossoming.
If you have any video suggestions, please leave them in the
comments below as well.
I will see you guys next time.