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I have a lot of experience with drugs, for better or worse. In many ways they’ve shaped who I am as a person due to the various experiences that have allowed me to see things through a different lens.
I grew up in the 1980s when we learned all drugs were very, very bad and would ruin your life. But now we’re understanding that certain plants and substances like psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and LSD may actually have therapeutic value.
When I was in elementary school, Nancy Reagan told us to JUST SAY NO, and I took that very seriously. She and the “this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” commercial with the fried egg had me convinced that if I ever so much as smoked pot once, I would end up homeless in a gutter and my life would be ruined.
Before I went away to college, my mother told me to never try LSD or I would end up like the (I assume fabled) girl in the mental hospital who thought she was a glass of orange juice and was afraid of tipping over due to doing too much acid. So, I tried it the first week I got to college.
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