Crazy that psychedelics are illegal in so many places. There certainly are risks that need to be taken seriously, but their potential seems incredible.
There's a lot of evidence that ancient peoples knew about and consumed psychedelics, but treated them spiritually.
A recent Joe Rogan interview[1] went pretty deep on it.
Many have "bad trips" because of the context (and too much too soon), or because the setting involves consuming other things like alcohol and cannabis. Psychedelics should be treated with respect. I prefer to take them with loved ones in a private setting.
I agree in sentiment, but would replace /recreational/ with /solely recreational and often consumed unsafely/. Recreation is an important part of life and there is nothing shameful about using these substances recreationally.
To each his own, but for first-timers a more controlled environment might be best. I'm pretty introspective, so I like a environment where I can go deep with that. Too much chaos, or interruption would get in the way for me.
The risk most people among my friends, particularly those who are generally scared of 'drugs' and who never had psychedelic experiences believe in turns out to be an urban myth:
https://www.nature.com/news/no-link-found-between-psychedeli...