paths to legalization 

Despite the medical and social damage caused by alcohol running into millions and billions every year, when I go to any supermarket and buy liquor, wine, and beer for hundreds of dollars, no one asks me if I am entitled to do so. Meanwhile the proposed model for cannabis consumption requires registration. Should I write “stoner” on my forehead and potentially be discriminated against by insurance companies, health insurers and employers?
And if cannabis would – finally –be decriminalized, how do we proceed with psychedelics and finally with all other substances? As already mentioned in the last editorial, this is medically not a problem, at least in Switzerland, where close to seventy therapists have official licenses to provide psychedelic care to their clientele. The author Claude Weill, who wrote a great book about the use of psychedelics late in life, says: “Adults who have the necessary basic knowledge and have had their first experience with psychedelics under guidance should be allowed to consume legally.” In the same article of the ‘Beobachter’ of March 30, 2020, addiction specialist Toni Berthel insists that we “don’t need lifestyle moralists.”
But how should this happen in concrete terms? What we certainly need is a network for spiritual emergencies, because even those who obtain a license to consume psychedelics cannot always cope with their experiences alone. Group work is called for, and we need a network of volunteer caregivers as well. We must find our own ways to counter the commercialism of the burgeoning psychedelics industry if we don’t want to be taken over and exploited. Where the substances are to come from must also be regulated. The medical model mentioned at the beginning shows a possible approach. How can private persons profit from it and thus flush money into the right coffers, namely into the university environment, where it is not about money, but about a different kind of gain, an increase in awareness?
And finally, what do we do with the countless cocaine addicts and other users of addictive substances? How are they to get what they need or want safely if they are not among the hard cases who benefit from our national heroin program? Should they be, like in the Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ standing in line with Mr. Jimmy at a pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled? Addicts do not only need safe spaces to consume, but also affordable and safe housing. We must not make the mistake of leaving people out in the cold who are interested in substances, but not necessarily in consciousness expansion. The psychedelic ethos is humane, and inclusive. Everything else remains to be seen.
Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station, tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

a thousand winters