I think psychedelics will ruin the minds of many teenagers. They should never be legalized. Anyone who has spent time around people who used them in their youth knows this, we don’t understand how they affect brains
Your comment about how "we don't understand how they (psychedelics) affect brains" holds true for pretty much anything we put in our bodies, so there's no real reason to draw the line at psychedelics. That said, it's not entirely true to say we don't understand _any_ of the action, because we do. If you want to know the answer to deeper questions like the effect on long-term development and so on, lower the barrier to studying the effects, and go from there.
I can't think of any good reason why psychedelics cannot be prescribed, but Oxycontin or Adderall or whatever can, and you can go buy alcohol and cigarettes at the store.
> I have some stoner friends from high school who were really smart and gave up in college and now work mediocre dead end jobs and live in really low cost of living areas.
> They're happy. They're far from dead. But that potential they had is completely gone at this point.
What entitles you to their potential?
People may want to change the world, or may just want an entry level job that keeps them fed and housed while spending their time on drugs/videogames/what-the-hell-they-damn-want-its-not-my-problem
If really smart people decide that working in construction and smoking weed is their call, who am I to say otherwise?
I think one difference is when you have 18 as the legal drinking age, a significant chunk of kids turn 18 while still in year 12. They could then legally buy it and then (illegally) on-sell it to their school friends who weren't of legal age yet.
In some cases parents would even buy alcohol for their teenage children. Parents supplying other drugs to their children is not totally unheard of but far less common.
Following this pattern, from what I've seen psychedelics are relatively simple to get (albeit harder than weed), therefore legalization might actually make them more difficult to illegally obtain because dealers will be replaced by controlled medical practices in many markets.
Decriminalization will also open doors for people to study _how_ they affect the brain.
Of course legal drugs always have “cool” adults willing to be straw purchasers for underage kids. It’s complicated, and the relationship between the law and underage usage are non linear.
Making it legal also helps remove stigma, lowering the barrier for people to seek help and care.
Some further reading: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...
> Anyone who has spent time around people who used them in their youth knows this,
No actually, not anyone. I have plenty of friends that have experimented with various psychedelics during different stages of their lives. They're perfectly healthy and productive members of society.
It's also perfectly possible to make something not be illegal, and still not sell it to teenagers.
Marijuana usage as a child or teenager is significantly correlated with declines in IQ by adulthood. Whether it's causal is up for debate, but avoiding it as a teenager is a good idea given extant knowledge.
Occasional use is very different from the "wake and bake" style of using marijuana every hour or so. I fell into the former category, as did some friends of mine, but I knew many who were in the latter. The differences a few years on are quite profound.
MDMA I'm less sure about due to possible neurotoxicity, I'd need to do more research on it, but my mind isn't closed to it.
I expect it will be a powerful tool that can help people suffering from a wide variety of traumas. Side note, but we don’t understand nearly enough about trauma. Unresolved trauma is an enormous driver of human suffering. I think it may far more widespread and take many more forms than what the textbooks say.
Relatedly, maybe humans had better ways of coping with trauma in the past, through communal bonds, more strongly shared world views, rituals, and so on.
Legalization is not the same as free distribution. It is not like you would see Psychedelics available in every store for everyone to buy, regardless of age or without prescription.
Funny how I took huge amounts of LSD and mushrooms as a youth and then made a successful living as a productive member of society. People are surprised to learn that aspect of my past because when it comes up. If anything, my world view and appreciation for differing viewpoints is broader because of it.