Take the Trip Out of Psychedelics?

In an essay published in International Journal of Drug Policy, Dutch psychology researcher Julian Heller and philosopher Yogi Hendlin argue that such attempts to take the trip out of psychedelics are a mistake.

The duo explain that psychedelics’ therapeutic potential is not merely neurochemical, but “highly dependent on subjective experience and environmental context.”

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Psychedelics Without Tripping, Update

In the lab of Dr. Bryan Roth, experiments are underway to remove the powerful hallucinogenic effects from psychedelic drugs.

“There’s one receptor in the brain that psychedelics bind to,” he said, referring to the serotonin 5-HT-2A receptor. “What we’re trying to find is drugs that bind to that receptor (and) activate it, but don’t cause a psychedelic experience and are anti-depressant.”

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