Entries by Derek Beres

How Psychedelics Can Transform Your Sex Life

High, drunk, or sober, what’s your favorite way to have sex? asks the comedian Deon Cole during a recent Netflix Is A Joke special. As the crowd advocate for high or drunk, Cole reveals his intentions: if you can’t enjoy sex sober, it’s probably not that good anyway. Humans have long held a fascination with sex. The Kama Sutra […]

Why Is DMT Called The Spirit Molecule?

Why is DMT called “the spirit molecule?” Rick Strassman was the first American researcher to receive government approval to study hallucinogens after a two-decade ban. Between the years of 1990-95, the clinical associate professor of psychiatry administered roughly 400 doses of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) to nearly 60 patients at the General Clinical Research Center of the University of New […]

Psychedelics Win Big at the Ballot Box

In one of the most contentious elections in modern history, one clear winner emerged at the ballot box: drugs. Regardless of political affiliation, citizens of Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota—two red and two blue states—legalized recreational marijuana. Red states Mississippi and South Dakota became the 34th and 35th states to legalize medical marijuana […]

What Is Ketamine Therapy?

In March 2019 the FDA approved ketamine, under the trade name Spravato (esketamine), for clinical use in treatment-resistant depression therapy. This is the first hallucinogen approved for therapeutic usage in the United States. Technically, ketamine is not a psychedelic, but a hallucinogen and dissociative. Psychedelics advocates still rejoiced over the decision, as it marked a […]

Psychedelics and Depression: What You Need to Know

Depression and psychedelics? Do they go together? Depression rates are spiking. Here’s how psychedelics may help. While seasonal depression is a reality for millions of people, this year is unique due to the pandemic. More than 264 million people around the world suffer from depression. Those numbers are increasing, and are expected to grow even higher during the winter […]

Why Are Psychedelics Illegal?

There was no single moment when all psychedelics became illegal in America. The process took at least four decades to unfold, beginning a year into the Great Depression with the demonization of marijuana. The blueprint created during that effort helped inform the criminalization of psychedelics, which began with LSD and psilocybin becoming illegal in 1968 […]