Current Event: Hallucinogens and Psychedelics

         The article “When Silicon Valley Takes LSD,” (Fink, 2015) explains the use of LSD in Silicon Valley and how it affects the people living there.  While LSD is sometimes taken for recreation, in Silicon Valley it is taken mostly to enhance creative thought processes in order to solve problems easier.  LSD physically changes how the brain makes connections in a thought process, so the drug can lead to different perspectives about a problem.  Sometimes, these perspectives lead to ideas, which turn into inventions which can bring great success to the individual.

          This article is important and relevant in many different ways.  First of all, I think that this article exposes a lot of the demonization of drugs by the government in modern society.  Illegal drugs are often portrayed as extremely dangerous, harmful, and addictive.  However, I think that this article clearly shows that drugs can sometimes be helpful, and are not nearly as evil as they are made out to be.  In this case, though the government stresses the danger of LSD, the article seems to show that there can be definite benefits of taking it.  The billionaires in the article take LSD to get new ideas for problems they encounter, and sometimes even attribute their success to their experiences with the drug, showing that we may need to rethink how we look at some illegal drugs.  Furthermore, LSD is considered to be an extremely addictive drug by the DEA.  However, none of the people interviewed seemed to be addicted.  They seemed to be very in control of their drug consumption: they only took the drug when they wanted the inspiration that it provided.  This could have even been as infrequently as once every few months.  While there are probably people who are not as responsible with the drug, the fact that the government only reports negative facts about illegal drugs makes it appear that they are actively trying to prevent people from trying them through demonization rather than legitimate, scientifically proven data.  Another demonization comes in when examining the users of the drug.  A stereotypical drug user is often depicted as a low-class drug-crazy bum, often African American.  However, these users of LSD clearly shatter this stereotype.  Not only are they white and successful billionaires, but they even attribute some of their success to the drug.  Some of them are even older than the expected age of a “drug user,” sometimes being 50 or so years old.  This is very unlike the propaganda used against drugs like LSD.

The progressive change in creative process of an artist during an LSD trip.

          Also in this class, we examined how drugs are often integral parts of certain cultures.  I think that psychedelics can definitely be considered an important part of the billionaire culture in Silicon Valley.  They seem to be a very prized substance, and a lot of people in this society seem to take the drugs on a regular basis to help them with their work life.  This is not the first time that psychedelics have been an important part of a culture.  The 1970s saw a huge surge in popularity of psychedelic drugs, and indeed, one of the engineers interviewed in the article even mentioned that the culture that he lives in at Silicon Valley reminds him of that of the 1970s.  These psychedelic drugs, both presently and historically, clearly play important roles in the culture of these two societies.

Steve Jobs is very well known for having taken LSD, saying it was a "profound experience,"
and it was one of the most important experiences of his life.

          Overall, this article provides a very eye-opening account of the benefits of illegal psychedelic drugs in the very high-class educated society of Silicon Valley.  These drugs are taken to enhance performance in the workplace, and as such seem to play an integral part in the culture.  This is a stark difference than is to be expected of “drug-users,” who have always been portrayed as addicted, low-class bums.  I think that benefits such as these show the need to reevaluate the US legal system with regards to illegal drugs such as psychedelics.  While there are, of course, addicts who will abuse a substance, I think that there is plenty of unbiased research that needs to be done to truly understand the workings of these drugs.  Current regulations make it nearly impossible to get drugs to conduct scientific studies with, and because of this we remain afraid of a substance we don’t know much about.  Because it seems that there definitely can be benefits from taking these psychedelic drugs, there should be studies to examine the effects of the drug, not only for the benefit for scientific knowledge, but also possibly to help advance society as a whole.        

Word count: 754 words

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/25/technology/lsd-psychedelics-silicon-valley/

Works Cited

Fink, E.  (2015, January 25).  When Silicon Valley takes LSD.  CNN Money.  Retrieved                     from http://www.money.cnn.com