Tripping Out About My Analysis (#4)

claudia yin
Nov 3 · 4 min read

SUMMARY

After reviewing a few articles surrounding my topic of psychedelic drugs, I came across this one article that really made me rethink some ideas I have about my topic. The article “What do we Know About the Risks of Psychedelics?,” is written by Bridget Huber, published by an author who goes by the name Michael Pollan. The main point of the article talks about the risks that we might not consider when using psychedelic drugs, whether it is for research or personal use. Most of the articles written about legalizing psychedelics for research often fail to mention the negative effects that come with taking these drugs. Huber brings up a few main points to support this claim such as going in depth about physical harm caused by change in judgement and additional mental illnesses that could be caused by the drug.

THESIS

Throughout this blog post, I am going to talk about how this article, written by Bridget Huber, changed my perception of my topic because she brought up the point of how other articles supporting the use of psychedelic drugs more than likely leave out the negative effects that come with it. What caught my attention while reading this specific article was that I started to think about the previous articles I wrote about, and most of them are only focused on the positive reasons to why we should legalize psychedelics. It makes sense to why they would do that since the whole point is to convince the reader that psychedelics should be legalized, however it kept my close minded towards other facts. In the article written by Huber, she brings up a few arguments such as the physical harm caused by how the drugs alter the brain and how taking these drugs can cause even more mental illnesses, which could lead to other problems.

EXPLANATION

The first idea that Huber brings up which caught my attention was how there are so many cases of individuals injuring themselves under the influence of psychedelic drugs. When taking any psychedelic, it alters your brain meaning that your perception and judgement are altered as well. Huber found several cases of individuals who injured themselves or other people while under the influence of LSD. One of the stories she mentions in her article is about a college student murders his girlfriend after ingesting LSD. In that article, “UW Student from Richland Dies After Beating by Boyfriend,” published by Tri-City Herald, goes in depth about how this couple purchased LSD from a person walking around campus and stayed up all night before the individual began to abuse his girlfriend. However, Huber also mentions how there are rare cases of people who report serious injuries from psychedelic drugs.

The second idea mentioned by Huber is how taking psychedelics could possibly cause additional mental illnesses. This idea especially caught my attention because one of the main subjects I am researching related to my topic is about how I feel that psychedelic drugs should be legalized for research relating to curing mental illnesses. In her article, Huber talks about a research done in 2015 by the researchers from John Hopkins and the University of Alabama. They concluded that from the group of inidivuals they surveyed, more than 13% of them claimed that after taking the psychedelic drug, they were lessl liekly to be in psychological desrress and 14% of them claimed they were less likely to have suicide thoughts. However, there is still that percentage of people who end up needing additional mental health treatments. There was another study done in 2011 by Erich Studerus where one of his subjects sought more treatment for anxiety, emotional disability, and depression.

CONCLUSION

After doing some additional research for my topic surrounding psychedelic drugs, there were a few ideas that made me rethink my standpoint, but there was not enough evidence to change my mind about legalizing psychedelic drugs for research. In the article that I read about, written by Bridget Huber, she brought up the point that most articles do not mention the negative effects that come with taking these drugs. Her main idea surrounded the points that being under the influence of psychedelics can alter your judgement which can cause you and other individuals physical harm. She also talked about how the after effects from taking psychedelics could cause the possibility of additional mental illnesses. Even though she brought some valid points and had facts to back it up, there is still only a very small percentage of those who start feeling negative effects after ingesting psychedelic drugs.

WORK CITED

Tyler. “UW Student from Richland Dies after Beating by Boyfriend.” Tri, Tri-City Herald, 22 Mar. 2016, www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article67693647.html.

“What Do We Know about the Risks of Psychedelics?” What Do We Know about the Risks of Psychedelics? “ Michael Pollan, michaelpollan.com/psychedelics-risk-today/.

claudia yin

Written by

I’m currently a second year at San Francisco State University. I am hoping to become a child psychologist after I graduate.

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