“Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Ghandi
The community of psychedelic users is a very very small minority. Consequently, any physical protest would be ineffective. Moreover, it is not in Labour or Tory interests to bother defending the spiritual liberties of such a small movement. The only political party with a forward thinking drug policy in the UK is The Green Party, so if you want to use the standard political channels to affecting change- vote for them!
The use of psychedelics has been oppressed for a long time. In the last 50 years especially, a campaign of misinformation, media-hysteria and moral-panic has been stirred up by the powers that be in order to continue its oppression.
If we wish to bring about change, we need to change the dominant discourses on psychedelics. An important thing to remember is that propaganda, media hysterias, and misinformation are always impermanent: in time, when these forces subside, the truth, will remain.
In the fight to end the persecution of psychedelic users- the truth is our greatest ally. This truth manifests in the form of the scientific data relating to psychedelics and, crucially, the pscyhedelic experience itself.
A growing body of scientific evidence exists to support the claim that psychedelics such as LSD and magic mushrooms are both safe and have profound relevance for clinical psychology, and potential power to improve the human condition profoundly. Sharing this research as it is released will help to foster a new acceptance of these drugs.
Time and time again, scientific research demonstrates the relative safety of psychedelics. If the government would base their policy on scientific evidence, LSD would not be a class A drug.
Further, the psychedelic experience itself is the real key to ‘winning hearts and minds’. To know it, is to love it – and if enough people love it, the laws will have to change.
Crucially, as psychedelic users, we have a duty to be honest with others about our experiences (whether positive or negative) and their significance to us. This is essential in order to counteract the many vested interests who seek only to represent the dangers/risks/negatives of psychedelics.
Our perspective on ‘The War on Psychedelics’ is that it is a persecution of a spiritual movement, occuring in the context of a consumer-capitalist society whose interests are not furthered by the spiritual insights afforded by psychedelic use. We defend this view based on the simple fact that so many users describe their experiences as spiritually significant, and use them for specifically spiritual ends, coupled with the overarching assumption that the state should not have the right to interfere with such a deeply personal aspect of human existence.
We at Cognitive Liberty UK would advocate the safe and responsible use of all drugs- for it is recklessness that leads to news headlines, and news headlines which give the state an excuse to oppress drug users. The truth is- headlines involving psychedelics are actually very very rare, one more indication that they are in fact quite safe.
There are numerous ways you can help:
Raise Awareness
- Spread the truth and raise awareness via social networking sites.
- Challenge assumptions and ignorance
- Change opinions
- Share experiences that will help people to understand
Web-Site Contribution
- Volunteer to become a regular contributor/writer
- Send in one-off contributions of original media to the blog
- Send in relevant links to external media
- Link our blog to your own, send our URL to people you think will be interested
- Content requests, link and media suggestions
- Share articles
Participate in the Community
- There are places, both virtual and non-virtual, all around The World where the psychedelic community come together.
It is by maintaining the community that the psychedelic movement will survive. By fostering a network of trusted individuals, who are devoted to resisting the oppression of a common enemy, no matter how powerful the machine bearing down on us is- we will be like ants slipping through it’s gears- wiating for a time when sane perspectives on the integration of psychedelic drugs emerge.
Contact Cognitive Liberty UK via email: COGNITIVELIBERTY@GMAIL.COM
Cognitive Liberty UK 