Then (1992), Food of the Gods
Psychedelics and the War on Drugs: McKenna's Prediction
Psychedelics are illegal not because they are dangerous but because they dissolve culturally-conditioned patterns of thought and enable direct perception of the control structures of modern society. Their suppression is a feature of the dominator system.
confirmed
John Ehrlichman's 2016 Harper's admission that the Nixon drug war explicitly targeted political enemies and Black communities confirms the political functionality McKenna described. Congressional testimony from 2019 DEA hearings confirmed that psilocybin's Schedule I classification was never based on evidence of harm or abuse potential. The FDA's Breakthrough Therapy designation for psilocybin (2018) and the subsequent opening of clinical research confirms that the scheduling was politically, not pharmacologically, determined.
Sources
- McKenna, Food of the Gods (1992)
- Ehrlichman in Baum, Harper's (2016)
- FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation: Psilocybin (2018)