It's been awesome to watch the nation's stance on drugs change. Most of America is taking a collective cannabis-scented exhale as the formerly suffocating and draconian perspectives on drugs start to resemble a trippy blacklight poster.
Colorado, the standard-bearer for progressive views on drugs, decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms in 2019. Had the previous sentence been written in the '60s, many would've heralded it as the first sign of the apocalypse. Hell, there are still a bunch of people who still think that way now.
With society moving closer to prioritizing mental health instead of stigmatizing it, it's no coincidence that alternative treatments such as psilocybin are getting a second look. Gee, if only someone with, I don't know, let's say a doctorate in neuroscience could've mentioned the effectiveness of psychedelic drugs decades ago.
Watching Dr. Timothy Leary's interview from prison is surreal for several reasons. The least of which is that Nena von Schlebügge, the woman at the beginning of the video, would eventually become Uma Thruman's mother. Leary crackles with humor and verve as he rattles off a slew of prescient visions that reflect modern attitudes on drugs at the clinical level.
Stripped of the era's hysteria, Leary appears less like a lunatic and more like a man who's in on a hilarious cosmic joke. Even if you've seen the video before, it's worth another viewing. Who knows what else Leary might be predicting from the past?
