I firmly believe a lot of current mental health issues are worsened by living under capitalism, as do others. Some of the most obvious examples to me are:
- Anxiety about being able to afford food and housing, having a stable job, not having emergency medical events, etc.
- Depression from not having free time due to being overworked, or from not being able to afford entertainment and distraction, etc.
One potential remedy to mental health issues has been developing in the form of psychedelic therapy. Besides the issues related to restricting access by making the treatment prohibitively expensive (both the drug and the administering physician) that are seemingly unavoidable in profit-driven healthcare systems, I think there’s a massive danger in using psychedelics to effectively pacify people.
Psychedelics can be used maliciously, in that they can be used to help people accept their life as it is–this sounds fine, until you realize that it can be used to make people accept being exploited and being effectively destitute. I think the problem here is that the medical institutions (and probably most patients) are going to have the goal of: being less depressed, less anxious, etc. If psychedelics were actually used to “wake people up to their reality”, they’d probably become more depressed, more anxious, etc–counter to the stated goals. I think one of the first steps towards wanting to change the existing system is seeing the flaws in the existing system and how one is negatively affected by it.
Then, if psychedelics are (going to be) used to pacify people suffering under capitalism, is their widespread adoption not a bad thing? If people are willfully blinding themselves to their suffering, is any hint of revolutionary spirit being extinguished?
I don’t think these issues are unique to psychedelics, either. If existing depression treatments numb you to all emotion, good and bad, they can make existing while being exploited more bearable.
Okay, so, I hate this argument that drugs of any type are anti-revolutionary. There was a thread on the leftist infighting community that I came across a while ago that I found particularly interesting. If I did this correctly, the thread should start here. I personally believe that the person who is arguing against drug use has no actual knowledge of real world drug use and how it affects people of different classes.
First of all, the demonization and illegalization of drugs is racist and capitalist. Henry Anslinger was the first head of the DEA, and after prohibition ended, he knew that the DEA would crumble, and so created the war on drugs
Second of all, there are many indigenous cultures that have used psychoactive substances for generations. Coca has been used in Chile for thousands of years. Peyote has been used by indigenous people on the american comtinent, and psylocibin mushrooms are used by Mazatec people. Don’t forget our dependence on coffee, energy drinks, and tea as well.
Drugs are not the problem, generally speaking. Capitalism and the conditions that we live in are the problem. People can and do live “productive” lives while also using mind altering substances, rich or poor. But it becomes addiction when people do not have connection to meaning; to a purpose, to other people. This is often due to our circumstances, past trauma, etc. Criminalization also contributes to this; if most drugs were available by prescription that would alleviate a lot of the dependence that we see now.
Using psychedelics and other drugs (ketamine, mdma) can be wonderfully therapeutic but the fact that they are now being capitalized on and will only be available to a small subset of people in a medical/therapeutic setting is troublesome.
I have and do use drugs; psychedelic and otherwise. I drink, probably too much. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to unionize my workplace, from trying to learn more about theory, from trying to find fulfillment in my life. In fact, it’s the opposite. What hinders me is the obligation that I have to a job that grinds me down and having to be subjected to the ills of the world. The mass shootings, the police murdering with impunity, the regulatioms and safeties for the natural world being stripped away. that’s what makes me demoralized and complacent. If it weren’t for those things, I’d be capable of much more, even with my substance use.
Edit to add: In my experience with psylocibin in particular, I often feel more optimistic and hopeful about my future. I generally don’t feel fear, and I think it could actually be useful to propel people towards impetus to create community and strive for liberation. I don’t know that someone could be “brainwashed” while taking psychedelics with a practitioner to become more complacent. In fact I think that regardless of what the messaging was, it builds way more empathy and drive to engage in empathy and action
