I recently wrote a piece on the archetype of psychotropic shamanism through the lens of marijuana, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms and peyote. Its archetypical form involves group bonding and/or psycho-somatic social healing in ritualistic settings. It is pro social and polyphasic behaviour, which I argued leads to psychointegration (Winkelman). You can find the book at:
Despite findings of the utility and progressive facets of psychotropic shamanism and the importance of these rituals especially to Indigenous cultures who have had to deal with settler-colonial subordination politics, I warned of the potential threat to mental health, particularly for those with a genetic predisposition towards psychosis from use of these entheogen substances.
I suggested we need to develop better genetic screening techniques for individuals with vulnerable genetics to psychosis and schizophrenia alongside of a truly principled decriminalization.
There is also the issue of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder which may also be outside the ambit of what qualifies as psychotic or schizophrenic.
These are powerful, mind-altering drugs and we don’t know much about their residual effects on brain health, and psychiatry has found a strong link between cannabis consumption and an increased risk and rate of developing psychosis and schizophrenia, for instance. The neurological processes involved in cannabis related deterioration of a person’s rational cognitive faculties are not well known, but a strong correlation exists.
It is evident that some appear immune to the acutely detrimental residual effects of cannabis or other entheogens. However, there may be a problem and issue in those people projecting their ‘drug fitness’ onto others. Those vying for legalisation should take the psychiatric community very seriously and work with them to develop techniques to identify people vulnerable to acute harm from use. There is currently no way of telling whether one is vulnerable as genetic variation can be so unique across individuals that even people without a family history of mental health complications can indeed be vulnerable. Furthermore, increased incidence of use may likely increase the risks of complications arising.
Fundamentalists on both sides of the fence obscure the real issues and the real facts of the matter: anti-drug demonization of psychedelics overlooks the intensely meaningful experiences one can have whilst inebriated, whilst pro-drug enthusiasts often overstate the point, projecting their own perceived invulnerability to health complications arising from use onto others.
Criminalization does more harm than good, especially with the over-incarceration of poorer peoples and people of non-white ethnicities in certain places on the globe. Whilst I am pro decriminalization, I think that an abstinence position is most wise, until we do more engaged studies on the potential residual neuro-toxic effects of these entheogen substances.
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