Psychedelics such as magic mushrooms, peyote, ayahuasca, and truffles may initially get people into legal trouble all over the world, but what if it turns out that these substances actually reduce the likelihood of criminal behavior? There may be more of a connection than you’d think, and that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today. Here in the Netherlands, most of these natural hallucinogens are legal to use, but perhaps they can also help keep you on the straight and narrow...
Read also: The spiritual benefits of magic mushrooms and other hallucinogens
Prosocial behavior
Between 2002 and 2007, researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine studied a massive group of 25,622 people under government supervision, and discovered that those diagnosed with “hallucinogen use disorder” were less likely to relapse than people who use other substances such as alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine. The use of psychedelics resulted in better compliance with supervision conditions. “Our results suggest that hallucinogens may promote abstinence from alcohol and other drugs, as well as prosocial behavior, specifically in a population with high recidivism,” the study’s authors wrote.
The study “contradicts the legal classification and popular perception of hallucinogens as categorically harmful substances without therapeutic potential,” the authors wrote in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. Scientific research into the potential of psychedelic drugs to benefit society or rehabilitate criminals is not exactly a new idea. Long before hippies started tripping, researchers in the 1950s were looking into these drugs, combining psychedelics with psychotherapy (also trendy at the time) to treat addictions. In 1970, however, the Controlled Substances Administration put a stop to these research activities. Since then, it has been difficult to pursue the matter legally, but today we are (fortunately) seeing a resurgence in research into the effects of psychedelics.
Read also: 5 tips for a pleasant first psychedelic experience
Concord Prison Experiment
This is not the first experiment of its kind, by the way. In the 1960s, there was also the so-called Concord Prison Experiment, in which Harvard researchers sought to determine whether administering a psychedelic substance—in this case, psilocybin—would reduce recidivism among inmates. The results were astonishing: predictions suggested that 64 percent of the 32 inmates studied would be back in prison after six months, but it turned out that only 25 percent ultimately ended up behind bars again. The experiment was conducted between 1961 and 1963 at Concord State Prison, a maximum-security facility for juvenile offenders.
However, a follow-up study showed a different picture, finding only a slight improvement in recidivism rates. A reflection written years later by one of the graduate students involved stated that he had no idea where the figures in the original study came from and wondered if the results were as positive as he remembered. In short: there is no definitive answer, but the large-scale study by Johns Hopkins University does seem to indicate that the use of psilocybin at least achieves better results in this area than other substances.
