0:00:15.133,0:00:18.812
I have been standing in front of audiences

0:00:18.812,0:00:23.181
for 30 years talking about drugs.

0:00:24.837,0:00:28.771
And I often start my[br]presentations with an apology.

0:00:29.051,0:00:34.482
Specifically, I apologise for the lies[br]of past drug educators,

0:00:34.482,0:00:36.763
including myself.

0:00:38.652,0:00:41.311
And I acknowledge we've told three lies.

0:00:42.232,0:00:44.071
We've exaggerated the harms of drugs,

0:00:44.071,0:00:47.212
we've never acknowledged[br]the benefits of drugs,

0:00:47.212,0:00:48.563
and we've never talked about

0:00:48.563,0:00:51.203
the dominant model[br]for controlling drugs in our society,

0:00:51.203,0:00:52.811
which is drug prohibition,

0:00:52.811,0:00:56.591
which has failed us all so badly.

0:00:57.041,0:00:59.552
(Applause) (Cheering)

0:01:03.450,0:01:06.392
Now, for much of my career,[br]I've talked about that last point,

0:01:06.392,0:01:08.011
the failure of the war on drugs,

0:01:08.011,0:01:10.642
but today I'm going to talk[br]about the benefits of drugs.

0:01:10.642,0:01:15.142
Specifically, I'm going[br]to talk about psychedelics.

0:01:16.340,0:01:18.842
Now, psychedelics have been[br]around in human culture

0:01:18.842,0:01:21.813
since before recorded human history.

0:01:22.264,0:01:25.932
And we can see at least four[br]communities, cultures today,

0:01:25.932,0:01:30.231
that have woven the psychedelic experience[br]into the fabric of their culture:

0:01:30.483,0:01:33.584
there's the curandero's use[br]of psilocybin mushrooms,

0:01:33.584,0:01:36.191
there's the ayahuasca use[br]in the Amazon basin,

0:01:36.191,0:01:38.002
there's the Huichol use of peyote,

0:01:38.002,0:01:41.803
and the shamanic use[br]of Amanita muscaria in Siberia.

0:01:42.741,0:01:45.143
Now, on the surface,

0:01:45.143,0:01:48.451
how the container of safety is created[br]with these cultures

0:01:48.451,0:01:51.481
with this psychedelic[br]experience is all different.

0:01:51.481,0:01:56.521
But if you look at how the experience[br]is integrated into the culture,

0:01:56.521,0:01:59.041
that is actually quite similar.

0:02:00.102,0:02:03.133
They're used for healing,

0:02:03.372,0:02:07.372
everything from psychological[br]to physical issues.

0:02:08.602,0:02:11.889
They're used for[br]a celebration of transitions

0:02:12.447,0:02:15.642
everything from seasonal changes[br]to puberty rites.

0:02:16.504,0:02:19.522
And they're used for spirituality

0:02:19.522,0:02:25.462
to connect the individuals and the culture[br]to the cosmos as a whole.

0:02:27.962,0:02:30.831
If I wanted to use one word[br]to describe that,

0:02:30.831,0:02:35.073
what I would say is[br]the word would be 'pro-social'.

0:02:35.322,0:02:38.982
Psychedelics have[br]always been used to connect

0:02:39.492,0:02:44.283
people to their culture[br]and to the universe.

0:02:45.611,0:02:51.432
So it was historically unprecedented[br]what happened in the 1960s

0:02:52.062,0:02:55.793
when psychedelics got linked[br]to an antisocial message.

0:02:56.265,0:02:58.132
It had never happened before.

0:02:58.132,0:03:01.650
Tim Leary said, 'tune in,[br]turn on, and drop out',

0:03:04.484,0:03:07.852
and the subsequent social backlash[br]has caused immense human suffering,

0:03:07.852,0:03:10.082
and it goes on today.

0:03:11.542,0:03:15.102
And admittedly, there were some other[br]cultural issues going on at the time,

0:03:15.102,0:03:18.333
but certainly, that disconnect[br]message was profound.

0:03:22.322,0:03:27.862
And the media participated[br]in the spinning of the web of illusions:

0:03:28.116,0:03:31.331
'LSD-Fed Ape Rapes TV Actress';

0:03:32.001,0:03:33.482
(Laughter)

0:03:33.482,0:03:36.432
'LSD Made Me a Prostitute';

0:03:37.783,0:03:40.281
'Girl Gives Birth to Frog'.

0:03:40.281,0:03:41.282
(Laughter)

0:03:41.282,0:03:43.383
Even the science of the time[br]was suppressed.

0:03:43.383,0:03:46.203
For 40 years, scientists couldn't do[br]what they needed to do,

0:03:46.203,0:03:48.194
which is measure stuff.

0:03:49.363,0:03:52.252
Now, can I think of any other time[br]in human history

0:03:52.252,0:03:55.401
when science is either being[br]suppressed or criminalized?

0:03:55.632,0:03:57.771
Well, as matter of fact, I can.

0:03:58.022,0:03:59.377
In 1616,

0:03:59.377,0:04:02.952
and then for the subsequent 143 years,

0:04:02.952,0:04:06.713
the science of the telescope was banned.

0:04:06.945,0:04:09.945
It was illegal for people to report

0:04:09.945,0:04:12.963
what they saw through[br]the lens of the telescope,

0:04:12.963,0:04:18.142
specifically that the earth was not[br]the centre of the universe.

0:04:19.610,0:04:23.782
LSD is to the study of the mind,

0:04:24.374,0:04:29.180
what the telescope is to astronomy[br]and what the microscope is to biology,

0:04:29.612,0:04:31.773
according to Stanislav Grof.

0:04:33.371,0:04:36.613
Well, psychedelics are back.

0:04:36.911,0:04:38.542
(Laughter)

0:04:38.923,0:04:41.342
This is the Canadian[br]Medical Association Journal,

0:04:41.342,0:04:46.223
the conservative voice[br]of Canadian medicine,

0:04:46.223,0:04:50.010
with a number of articles,[br]exploring the psychedelic renaissance,

0:04:50.174,0:04:53.752
the explosion of research[br]that has happened in recent years.

0:04:54.703,0:04:57.101
That's really what I want[br]to talk to you about.

0:04:57.272,0:04:58.402
But to be really clear,

0:04:58.402,0:05:03.821
what I'm talking about here is[br]skilled, trained, competent professionals

0:05:03.821,0:05:09.085
using pure substances[br]in ways that are well supervised.

0:05:09.085,0:05:12.331
I'm not talking about impure street drugs

0:05:12.331,0:05:17.274
used by unsupervised,[br]irresponsible adolescents.

0:05:21.094,0:05:25.261
So how do researchers think[br]about psychedelics these days?

0:05:25.684,0:05:28.052
Because they break them[br]into three categories.

0:05:28.472,0:05:30.591
The first are the classics:

0:05:31.451,0:05:32.716
LSD,

0:05:33.276,0:05:34.566
mescaline,

0:05:35.146,0:05:36.812
dimethyltryptamine,

0:05:37.067,0:05:38.617
and psilocybin.

0:05:39.492,0:05:42.921
And these offer researchers[br]a variety of attributes

0:05:42.921,0:05:45.623
that are worthy of investigation.

0:05:45.783,0:05:48.151
For example, spirituality.

0:05:49.721,0:05:51.562
Now, it's kind of neutral spirituality

0:05:51.562,0:05:55.231
because Buddhists find the Buddha,

0:05:56.331,0:05:58.643
Christians find Christ,

0:05:59.553,0:06:03.353
and atheists and agnostics[br]find the entire universe.

0:06:05.501,0:06:08.732
And this particular aspect[br]of these medicines is quite useful

0:06:08.732,0:06:13.434
for situations like end-of-life anxiety.

0:06:13.811,0:06:17.163
When we are dying, and we're anxious[br]about the experience,

0:06:17.163,0:06:21.061
and we take a dosage of psilocybin,[br]and we meet our maker,

0:06:21.061,0:06:24.152
and we're told, it's okay, we can relax.

0:06:24.152,0:06:25.963
We're just coming home.

0:06:26.232,0:06:29.732
It tends to reduce[br]the stress of that transition.

0:06:32.351,0:06:37.121
The classical psychedelics also offer[br]a disorientation of the ego,

0:06:37.562,0:06:41.741
which can be very helpful in things[br]like treatment for alcoholism.

0:06:43.131,0:06:45.873
They also increase the permeability

0:06:45.873,0:06:48.202
between the unconscious[br]and the conscious mind;

0:06:48.202,0:06:50.634
they allow us to have access[br]to our unconscious

0:06:50.634,0:06:53.232
in a way that we don't normally.

0:06:55.152,0:06:57.790
Now, if you really think[br]about the human experience,

0:06:57.790,0:07:00.730
a lot of our lives[br]are lived unconsciously.

0:07:00.730,0:07:02.871
For example, driving a car.

0:07:03.221,0:07:06.180
Our conscious mind[br]is thinking about the radio,

0:07:06.180,0:07:08.052
and what we're going to have for lunch,

0:07:08.052,0:07:10.621
and the conflict we had[br]with our spouse, or whatever.

0:07:11.311,0:07:13.762
We don't think about our feet.

0:07:14.112,0:07:17.693
Our unconscious mind is driving the car.

0:07:18.413,0:07:23.622
We live our lives with lots of tape loops[br]that just happen automatically.

0:07:24.942,0:07:27.272
And if something bad happened[br]to us in childhood,

0:07:27.272,0:07:30.372
and it's replaying itself[br]consistently in our adult life,

0:07:30.372,0:07:32.234
and causing problems for us,

0:07:32.234,0:07:36.451
it’s very hard to access[br]because it's unconscious.

0:07:37.251,0:07:39.592
Psychedelics can help with that.

0:07:42.072,0:07:44.900
Psychedelics also offer -[br]the classic psychedelics offer

0:07:44.900,0:07:47.351
what I call 'the portal effect',

0:07:47.741,0:07:51.832
which is the 'Wow,[br]that was incredible!' effect.

0:07:53.272,0:07:56.322
It's a bit like climbing Mount Everest[br]or graduating high school;

0:07:56.322,0:07:59.543
you have a sense of[br]accomplishment and transition.

0:07:59.785,0:08:02.903
And that's very helpful[br]in many conditions.

0:08:02.903,0:08:07.511
The second group of psychedelics[br]are the empathogens;

0:08:07.511,0:08:12.441
3-MMC, MDA, MDMA are examples.

0:08:12.441,0:08:16.963
And what they do is they bond people[br]and increase empathy.

0:08:17.123,0:08:22.662
That's really useful to bond a therapist[br]to somebody who wants some help.

0:08:22.662,0:08:24.382
That connection is really important.

0:08:24.382,0:08:27.314
It could be facilitated[br]with these medicines.

0:08:27.594,0:08:30.326
They also take away fear.

0:08:30.962,0:08:33.562
So if a soldier who's been[br]in battle in Afghanistan

0:08:33.562,0:08:35.241
comes back to North America

0:08:35.241,0:08:37.572
and is replaying that trauma[br]again and again,

0:08:37.572,0:08:39.822
normal therapy can't access it,

0:08:39.822,0:08:41.471
partly because it's unconscious,

0:08:41.471,0:08:44.261
but partly because[br]anything it gets close to,

0:08:44.261,0:08:46.652
it has a huge fear response.

0:08:47.891,0:08:53.183
And MDMA specifically takes away that fear[br]and allows the tape to be reworked.

0:08:53.183,0:08:58.004
It appears MDMA-assisted psychotherapy[br]maybe the best treatment for PTSD,

0:08:58.004,0:09:00.781
post-traumatic stress[br]disorder, that exists.

0:09:02.861,0:09:04.822
And then there's everything else.

0:09:04.822,0:09:06.222
Things like ibogaine,

0:09:06.222,0:09:08.011
which appear to be incredibly helpful

0:09:08.011,0:09:10.512
for heroin withdrawals,

0:09:10.892,0:09:12.422
opiate addiction,

0:09:12.622,0:09:17.452
this 2C-B, this salvia, and this ketamine[br]that seems to be helpful for depression.

0:09:19.312,0:09:26.252
Now, my own area of academic interest[br]is articulating post-prohibition models

0:09:26.452,0:09:30.831
for the regulation and control[br]of all currently illegal drugs,

0:09:31.401,0:09:33.592
based on public health principles.

0:09:34.991,0:09:36.873
You might have noticed,

0:09:37.423,0:09:40.719
drug prohibition is slowly crumbling

0:09:40.719,0:09:44.166
under the weight[br]of its own ineffectiveness.

0:09:44.391,0:09:47.542
It does not protect our communities.

0:09:48.992,0:09:51.842
It does not protect our families.

0:09:52.842,0:09:55.881
And it does not protect our children.

0:09:56.755,0:09:58.452
So it will end.

0:09:58.803,0:10:01.791
And I ask the question,[br]'What are we going to replace it with?'

0:10:01.791,0:10:04.462
peering through the lens of public health.

0:10:05.692,0:10:07.551
So the goal of a public health approach

0:10:07.551,0:10:10.582
is to maximize the benefits[br]and minimize the harms.

0:10:10.785,0:10:14.381
I've already talked about some benefits,[br]so I'd like to talk about harms.

0:10:14.812,0:10:19.062
The harms from all drugs[br]can be broken into three categories:

0:10:20.831,0:10:23.542
dependency, toxicity, and behaviour.

0:10:24.207,0:10:25.793
Dependency -

0:10:25.793,0:10:28.853
I worked for the addiction[br]services for 30 years.

0:10:28.853,0:10:33.732
Nobody ever walked in my office[br]saying, 'I can't stop taking LSD'.

0:10:34.112,0:10:35.483
(Laughter)

0:10:35.483,0:10:36.744
It never happened!

0:10:37.014,0:10:40.922
So the dependency potential[br]for psychedelics is really low.

0:10:41.282,0:10:42.932
Toxicity -

0:10:43.792,0:10:47.041
The last time you took[br]a prescription drug,

0:10:47.041,0:10:52.342
if you took six times the dosage,[br]you probably did yourself harm.

0:10:52.342,0:10:56.122
That one to six ratio is very[br]common for most drugs.

0:10:56.122,0:10:59.521
With LSD, it's in the thousands.

0:11:00.161,0:11:02.561
In fact, Albert Hofmann, who invented LSD,

0:11:02.561,0:11:06.102
said it was one of the least[br]toxic substances on the planet.

0:11:08.142,0:11:11.354
So dependency is very low,[br]toxicity is very low,

0:11:11.354,0:11:15.011
so all of the harms from psychedelics[br]come from one thing,

0:11:15.011,0:11:16.611
which is the behaviour,

0:11:16.611,0:11:19.733
which is essentially lack of supervision.

0:11:20.592,0:11:23.952
Now, indigenous communities[br]have known this for years.

0:11:23.952,0:11:28.873
They've always provided the experience[br]in a very tight container of safety,

0:11:28.873,0:11:32.512
where they're highly[br]supervised experiences.

0:11:33.801,0:11:37.381
How researchers[br]are thinking about this today

0:11:38.632,0:11:41.873
is they think about the words,[br]or they talk about the words:

0:11:41.873,0:11:45.155
'set', which is expectations;

0:11:45.575,0:11:47.912
'setting', which is the environment;

0:11:48.172,0:11:50.892
'dosage', which is[br]what you take and how much;

0:11:51.272,0:11:53.922
and 'safety', which is the umbrella term.

0:11:54.202,0:11:56.041
So set, setting, safety, and dosage

0:11:56.041,0:12:01.016
are carefully structured[br]by the research community today.

0:12:03.713,0:12:06.653
So in a post-prohibition world,

0:12:06.653,0:12:12.142
if the goal is to maximize the benefits[br]and minimize the harms of psychedelics,

0:12:12.142,0:12:15.414
people would have access[br]to the psychedelic experience.

0:12:16.452,0:12:20.712
So long as they were supervised,

0:12:21.172,0:12:24.771
there was a container of safety[br]built around the experience,

0:12:24.771,0:12:27.364
and somebody was in charge.

0:12:27.572,0:12:30.752
A trained competent, skilled professional,

0:12:30.752,0:12:34.902
who is licensed, would be allowed[br]to offer the experiences to others

0:12:34.902,0:12:39.143
so long as set, setting, dosage,[br]and safety were managed.

0:12:39.143,0:12:42.142
And it wouldn't matter[br]what the environment was:

0:12:42.522,0:12:45.204
It could be indigenous healing circles;

0:12:45.984,0:12:49.032
it could be psychedelic psychotherapy;

0:12:50.462,0:12:52.271
it could be multi-day dance festivals.

0:12:52.271,0:12:55.382
It doesn't matter,[br]as long as somebody is in charge.

0:12:56.013,0:13:01.643
I would like to reflect[br]on the human predicament today.

0:13:03.252,0:13:06.674
We're in trouble as a species.

0:13:07.682,0:13:10.453
Global climate change[br]is affecting all of us.

0:13:10.453,0:13:13.084
There's a concentration of wealth[br]at the top of the pile

0:13:13.084,0:13:17.452
that is unprecedented in any society,[br]so few people control so much wealth.

0:13:17.823,0:13:21.211
There's a huge amount of violence[br]and religious extremism.

0:13:22.042,0:13:24.925
And we live in these[br]really strange societies

0:13:24.925,0:13:29.502
where somehow we've equated[br]happiness with buying stuff.

0:13:31.052,0:13:35.772
So if I really think about those problems,[br]they're problems of disconnection:

0:13:37.402,0:13:39.901
we are disconnected from the earth;

0:13:40.312,0:13:42.852
we are disconnected from each other;

0:13:43.303,0:13:46.811
we are disconnected from a true sense[br]of meaning and purpose in our lives;

0:13:46.811,0:13:50.002
and we're disconnected[br]from healthy spiritual experiences.

0:13:53.003,0:13:57.151
The good news is psychedelics[br]are all about connections.

0:13:57.842,0:14:00.951
These two images are very powerful.

0:14:01.162,0:14:05.833
They're depictions of the human brain[br]based on neuroscience.

0:14:05.833,0:14:08.752
The one on the left[br]is the normal human brain.

0:14:09.441,0:14:13.454
The parts of the outside of the circle are[br]the different parts of the human brain,

0:14:13.454,0:14:16.023
the visual cortex, for example.

0:14:16.262,0:14:20.004
Notice that the visual cortex talks[br]a lot to the visual cortex,

0:14:20.434,0:14:22.792
and not a lot to the other[br]parts of the brain.

0:14:23.932,0:14:29.763
The image on the right is the human brain[br]under the influence of psilocybin.

0:14:30.141,0:14:34.793
Notice the rich range[br]of new connections that are formed.

0:14:35.142,0:14:37.813
Psychedelics are all about connections:

0:14:39.162,0:14:41.101
connections with self -

0:14:43.421,0:14:45.283
we have access to our unconscious minds

0:14:45.283,0:14:47.641
in a way we do not[br]normally have access to;

0:14:47.912,0:14:50.153
connections with each other -

0:14:51.124,0:14:53.300
that's the empathogen research;

0:14:53.503,0:14:57.631
connections with a sense[br]of meaning and purpose to life -

0:14:58.842,0:15:01.131
there's a lot of research done on that;

0:15:01.471,0:15:04.562
and connections with a sense[br]of true spirituality -

0:15:04.562,0:15:08.673
indigenous communities[br]have known that for centuries.

0:15:13.883,0:15:16.092
Isaac Asimov said,

0:15:16.812,0:15:20.452
'One of the saddest aspects of life now

0:15:20.452,0:15:26.692
is that science gathers knowledge faster[br]than society gathers wisdom'.

0:15:27.654,0:15:32.872
We as a human species need to grow up.

0:15:33.863,0:15:35.921
We need to take advantage of

0:15:35.921,0:15:40.061
and learn and work with[br]the knowledge that we already have.

0:15:41.913,0:15:44.611
And perhaps, just perhaps -

0:15:44.611,0:15:48.123
something that could[br]help us mature as a species

0:15:48.123,0:15:51.082
and maybe even assist with our survival

0:15:51.692,0:15:58.443
is mature, skillful, wise use[br]of psychedelic medicines.

0:16:02.743,0:16:03.982
Thank you.

0:16:03.982,0:16:05.664
(Applause) (Cheers)