During the 1970’s there was a decrease in studies and research of psychedelic drugs, it became illegal and was banned in the United States. Having banned many of these researches decreased in knowing more about psychedelic drugs. In recent years, psychedelic drugs have been bringing in more investigations of the disadvantages and advantages it would have in a human body.  Researchers have started to question and want more information about; the effect of microdosing psychedelics and its weaknesses and benefits it would have in a human body? Would it help in improving people with an illness? There are many open questions and not many answers since the United States had put psychedelics under illegal drugs. An increase in people having different illnesses to maneuver; a microdose psychedelic is trying to be provided for people with anxiety or even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).           A psychedelic drug is also known as a hallucinogenic drug, some of the common drugs are lysergic acid diethylamide known as LSD, or psilocybin mushroom which includes the most known mushroom, the magic mushroom. Psychedelic drugs are used to help with health conditions such as, “obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), alcohol dependence, tobacco dependence, depression, and end of life anxiety” and this would help in bringing up a better health and mental life (Anderson, T., et.all., 2019, pg. 732). In many cases the experience with a full dose of a psychedelic drug has caused the experience of people to have a “bad trip” and even a participant in the study of microdosing psychedelic drugs said to be “the worst experience of her life” (Griffiths et al. 2011). A full dose of a psychedelic drug has caused for 39% of the participants to complete a survey and concluded that their experience was difficult during their time with the treatment of the drug (Anderson, T., et. all., 2019, pg. 732). Their experience of a full dose led researchers to issue a clinical trial with participants having to consume a smaller dosage of the same drug (Lea, T., et. all., 2020). The negative experience of a full dose, created for there to be trials, but in a way that the drug would cause no harm or create unpleasant experiences. Microdosing psychedelic is the “practice of consuming [a] very low” amount of a hallucinogenic drug, the amount to consume is between one-tenth or one-twentieth of the regular dose that the participant would regularly take (Anderson, T., et. all., pg.1). The use of microdosing psychedelics has brought awareness to the topic and has “recently grown in popularity,” this led to research to begin (Anderson, T., et. all., 2019, pg.1).The participants for researches were picked from different forms of application, some were through formal writing forms and others were through an online form (Anderson, T., et. all., pg.3). One way to pick participants was through a message board website used in the internet called Reddit. People would use this platform to communicate different ideas, this  would inform the participants who were interested in volunteering with a consent form along with instructions to fill out a survey every week on their “mood, self-efficiency, focus, social [interaction], energy, cognitive behavior, anxiety, and psychological [progress] ” (Anderson, T., et. all., 2019, pg.3,6). The improvement of microdosing psychedelics would be for people who have suffer of psychological illnesses, such as depression, PTSD, and anxiety or for helping people who are addicted to alcohol or tobacco and have a long life treatment for anxiety.  (Anderson, T., et. all., 2019, pg.3). Microdosing psychedelic is a theory in which it would cause the participants to enhance in their feelings and anxiety. People who needed treatment for depression and other illnesses developed an improvement in their lifestyles by changing their habits making part of their life in practicing meditating, exercise, eating habits, and sleep (Lea, T., et. all., 2020).   

 During the conclusion of the trial, the results demonstrated microdosing to be beneficial for people who were participating. The results stated 26.6% percent of the people benefiting in feeling improvements of their mood, followed by 14.8% percent improved focus, and 12.9% percent in increasing their creativity. Thus, the three biggest challenges with microdosing were 29.5% percent illegality, 18% percent physiological discomfort, which is having “disrupted senses (visual) or even having a reduced appetite,” followed by having a small percent of people having impaired focus which is 8.8% percent (Anderson, T., et. all., 2019, pg.4-5). These trials proved to improve some people’s mindset, but it would also cause others to feel discomfort.  

The question still stands, is microdosing psychedelics beneficial or harmful and how would it improve in the modern world? Using a psychedelic drug either an LSD drug or psilocybin mushroom, would create for there to be struggles and for others to have improvements in their health. There can be an increase in having less anxiety and less dependency in tobacco and alcohol, but it can also cause harm in trying to focus or even in trying to have a better mindset (Anderson, T., et. all, 2019, pg.6). The use of many drugs can have benefits in helping a person become better, but there are sometimes that it can have side effects which would affect the human’s body. Statistics indicate the average of people who need to take a psychedelic drug, along with the age of the person would result in showing how it develops the body and the mind of the participant.

Overall, there has been controversy on microdosing psychedelics and whether or not it would create improvements, or it would bring disadvantage to the person’s body. The International Journal of Drug Policy discussion ends with explaining that there was an improvement “[in the] psychological well-being among people microdosing (Anderson., et. all., 2019). There are benefits for microdosing and more evidence for mental health and personality improvements. However, there are some small chances of causing harm by taking a psychedelic microdose, but there is a higher percent of harming oneself by taking a full dose. 

Work Cited

Anderson, T., Petranker, R., Rosenbaum, D., Weissman, C., Dinh-Williams, R., Hui, L., . . . Farb, E. (2019). Microdosing psychedelics: Personality, mental health, and creativity differences in microdosers. Psychopharmacology, 236(2), 731-740.

Anderson, T., Petranker, R., Adam, C., Rosenbaum, D., Weissman, C., Dinh-Williams, L., . . . Hapke, E. (2019). Psychedelic microdosing benefits and challenges: An empirical codebook. Harm Reduction Journal, 16(1), 1-1

Lea, T., Amada, N., Jungaberle, H., Schecke, H., & Klein, M. (2020). Microdosing psychedelics: Motivations, subjective effects and harm reduction. International Journal of Drug Policy, 75, 102600.