International Journal of Drug Policy - The Consciousness Library

Aesthetic mediation and lateral agency: Rethinking trauma and drug consumption in ‘crisis ordinariness’

International Journal of Drug Policy August 21, 2026 Renae Fomiatti, Helen Keane, Gemma Nourse et al.

Trauma has a become a dominant causal explanation in psychological and public health accounts of drug use, with drug consumption typically framed as a coping response or form of self-medication. Drawing on Lauren Berlant's work (2008, 2011), particularly their concepts of genre, crisis ordinariness and lateral agency, we examine the affective and political conventions of trauma as a genre for...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105471

Policy pathways and historical insights: Canada's evolving approach to psychedelic access for end-of-life distress

International Journal of Drug Policy July 6, 2026 Sarah Kratina, Robert Schwartz, Carol Strike et al.

Canada's evolving attitudes toward psychedelic interventions in palliative and end-of-life care reflect a departure from historically prohibitionist policies and an emerging recognition of their therapeutic potential for individuals facing end-of-life distress. This shift parallels international regulatory developments in jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia and parts of Europe,...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105414 Parallels Medicalization Psychological intervention Public policy +13

Balancing safety and access in Oregon’s psilocybin services

International Journal of Drug Policy June 13, 2026 Katherine Cheung, Caleigh Propes, David B. Yaden

As jurisdictions across the U.S. consider enacting policies that facilitate access to psychedelics, they must determine how the desire to expand access to these substances should be weighed against the need to adequately protect safety. Oregon's psilocybin services program offers an important early case study of this balance in practice. Under the Psilocybin Services Act, adults over 21 are...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105384 Psilocybin Hallucinogen Medline Poison control +3

Regulatory ambiguity and governance challenges for psilocybin mushrooms in Brazil

International Journal of Drug Policy February 18, 2026 Marcel Nogueira, Solimary García-Hernández, Gleicy Sotéro Roberto et al.

The legal status of psilocybin mushrooms in Brazil remains ambiguous, despite increasing global scientific and public interest in their therapeutic and ceremonial use. This commentary examines the regulatory uncertainty surrounding psilocybin mushrooms in Brazil and situates the debate within broader legal, drug policy, public health, and Indigenous rights discussions. Building on academic...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2026.105198 Psilocybin Indigenous Corporate governance Ambiguity +9

Psychedelics for substance use disorders: are women being addressed? A scoping review

International Journal of Drug Policy September 2, 2025 Alexandra Wojdyslawski Nigri, Ilana Falcão de Arruda, Catarina Maia et al. 3 citations

INTRODUCTION: Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a prevalent health issue that affects individuals globally. Research is currently being conducted on the potential use of psychedelics as a new approach to treating SUDs. Women have been shown to respond differently than men to SUDs treatments and women-specific approaches have been recommended. This scoping review explores the ways in which...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104960 Substance use Criminology

The Impact of Communicating the Benefits and Safety of Psilocybin on Policy Support: a Survey Based Experiment

International Journal of Drug Policy August 1, 2025 Karla Hitchins, James P. Reynolds 1 citation

BACKGROUND: Preliminary evidence suggests psilocybin may have therapeutic value for various mental health conditions; despite this, it is currently illegal in the UK. Less is known about how people form their attitudes towards psilocybin policies. OBJECTIVES: To explore whether beliefs about the benefits and safety of psilocybin influence support for psilocybin policies. METHODS: In an online...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2025.104909 Psilocybin Survey research Hallucinogen

Psychedelics as a tool for a more connected and sustainable world? Considering the importance of rituals, boundaries, and commitment.

International Journal of Drug Policy September 5, 2024 Katie Anderson, Patrick Elf, Amy Isham 6 citations

Despite the surge of interest in psychedelic research in the past decade, largely due to the promise of psychedelics for improving mental health outcomes, there has been comparatively little discussion about the social and environmental consequences of psychedelic drug use. While there is growing evidence to suggest psychedelics could foster a greater connection to the natural world and improve...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104571 Aesthetics

Psychedelic discourses: A qualitative study of discussions in a Danish online forum

International Journal of Drug Policy January 19, 2023 Søren Holm, Margit Anne Petersen, Oskar Enghoff et al. 18 citations

BACKGROUND: This study focuses on user-perspectives related to norms, beliefs and practices concerning psychedelic substances as they are articulated in a Danish online forum. The study combines an interest in online drug research with a focus on discourse analysis to account for the dialectical relationship between individual and shared knowledge regarding the use and meaning of psychedelics....

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103945 Full text Danish Qualitative research Online forum Media studies +5

Enhancing equity-oriented care in psychedelic medicine: Utilizing the EQUIP framework

International Journal of Drug Policy August 27, 2021 Kerri Rea, Bruce Wallace 30 citations

Psychedelic-assisted therapies are experiencing a re-emergence in mainstream medicine and mental health contexts. A wide variety of psychedelic-assisted therapy modalities are being utilized to address mental health issues such as substance use disorders, end of life anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, suicidality, PTSD and other conditions. The novel and inchoate acceptance of...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103429

Sociological investigations of human enhancement drugs: The case of microdosing psychedelics

International Journal of Drug Policy January 28, 2021 Dimitrios Liokaftos 17 citations

Microdosing psychedelics is the regular use of sub-perceptive threshold doses of substances such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin ('magic') mushrooms. The phenomenon has attracted increasing public and scientific attention in numerous countries in recent years. This commentary looks at microdosing psychedelics as an emerging facet of human enhancement through drugs. After...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.103099 Psilocybin Lysergic acid diethylamide Phenomenon Narrative +1

Pharmacosex: Reimagining sex, drugs and enhancement

International Journal of Drug Policy November 24, 2020 Leah Moyle, Alex Dymock, Alexandra Aldridge et al. 42 citations

BACKGROUND: The use of drugs in sexual contexts is receiving closer attention in the media, public health bodies and communities than ever before. However, research to date is most often concerned with the sex-related drug use of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) populations, and particularly men who have sex with men (MSM) engaging in 'chemsex'. Against a backdrop dominated...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102943 Transgender Pleasure Human sexuality Queer +7

Microdosing psychedelics: Motivations, subjective effects and harm reduction

International Journal of Drug Policy November 25, 2019 Toby Lea, Nicole Amada, Henrik Jungaberle et al. 119 citations

BackgroundIn recent years there has been growing media attention on microdosing psychedelics (e.g., LSD, psilocybin). This refers to people routinely taking small doses of psychedelic substances to improve mental health and wellbeing, or to enhance cognitive performance. Research evidence is currently limited. This paper examines microdosing motivations, dosing practices, perceived short-term...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.11.008 Psilocybin Anxiety Mental health Cognition +6

Psychedelic-assisted therapies: The past, and the need to move forward responsibly

International Journal of Drug Policy May 25, 2019 John Gardner, Adrian Carter, Kerry O’Brien et al. 23 citations

Recent clinical studies illustrate that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin may represent much-needed new treatment options for mood disorders and alcohol and other drug use disorders. More clinical studies are required to confirm the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies, but the cultural stigma that has surrounded psychedelics since the 1960s has hindered research. This...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.05.019 Full text

Narrative identity, rationality, and microdosing classic psychedelics

International Journal of Drug Policy May 8, 2019 Megan Webb, Heith Copes, Peter S. Hendricks 75 citations

BackgroundMicrodosing involves ingesting a small dose of a classic psychedelic (e.g., LSD and psilocybin) at regular intervals for prolonged periods. The practice is said to reduce anxiety, improve mood, and offer several creative and practical benefits to users. Using the narrative identity theoretical framework, our aim was to explore the experiences of those who microdosed classic...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.04.013

The tripping point: The potential role of psychedelic-assisted therapy in the response to the opioid crisis

International Journal of Drug Policy February 10, 2019 Elena Argento, Kenneth W. Tupper, M. Eugenia Socias 17 citations

The increasing contamination of the drug supply with illicitly manufactured fentanyl and related analogs in North America has resulted in the most severe drug-overdose crisis in history. Available pharmacotherapy options for the treatment of opioid use disorder have had limited success in curbing the current crisis, and a growing body of evidence highlights the need for innovative interventions...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.11.006 Opioid use disorder Fentanyl Psychological intervention Pharmacotherapy +3

Ayahuasca’s entwined efficacy: An ethnographic study of ritual healing from ‘addiction’

International Journal of Drug Policy April 19, 2017 Piera Talin, Emilia Sanabria 101 citations

The ritual use of ayahuasca stands in strong contrast to hegemonic understandings of addiction, paving new ground between the overstated difference between community and pharmacological interventions. The article concludes that fluid, adaptable forms of caregiving play a key role in the success of addiction recovery and that feeling part of a community has an important therapeutic potential.

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.02.017 Ayahuasca Addiction Psychological intervention Psychotherapist +2

Medicine, religion and ayahuasca in Catalonia. Considering ayahuasca networks from a medical anthropology perspective

International Journal of Drug Policy October 18, 2016 Ismael Apud, Oriol Romaní 40 citations

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive beverage from the Amazon, traditionally used by indigenous and mestizo populations in the region. Widespread international use of the beverage began in the 1990s in both secular contexts and religious/spiritual networks. This article offers an analysis of these networks as health care systems in general and for the case of Spain and specifically Catalonia, describing...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.07.011 Ayahuasca Medicalization Perspective graphical Medical anthropology +4

The users of Novel Psychoactive Substances: Online survey about their characteristics, attitudes and motivations

International Journal of Drug Policy March 23, 2016 Christophe Soussan, Anette Kjellgren 152 citations

BACKGROUND: The increasing number of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) constitutes a challenge for public health agencies and researchers worldwide. Scientific studies about NPS and their users are limited and there is a need to explore the general motivations for NPS use but also to examine if and how the motivations differ between substances from separate effect classes. The aim of the...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.03.007 Addiction Pleasure Harm reduction Incentive +3

Self-reported prevalence of dependence of MDMA compared to cocaine, mephedrone and ketamine among a sample of recreational poly-drug users

International Journal of Drug Policy July 15, 2014 Hanna Uosukainen, Ulrich Tacke, Adam Winstock 55 citations

BackgroundEvidence regarding MDMA (ecstasy) dependence and the most suitable criteria for its assessment are controversial. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of last year symptoms of dependence upon MDMA compared to cocaine, mephedrone and ketamine among a large global non-treatment seeking sample.MethodsA cross-sectional anonymous online survey was promoted by a UK-based dance music...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.07.004 Full text MDMA Ecstasy Ketamine Mephedrone +7

Ayahuasca and the process of regulation in Brazil and internationally: Implications and challenges

International Journal of Drug Policy August 19, 2011 Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Kevin Feeney 142 citations

BackgroundThis paper provides a summary and analysis of the regulation of ayahuasca in Brazil, from its prohibition in the mid-eighties to the recent adoption of CONAD's (Conselho Nacional de Políticas sobre Drogas) 2010 Resolution, which established a set of rules, norms and ethical principles to be applied to religious and ritual uses of ayahuasca. Brazil's regulatory process is used as a...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2011.06.006 Ayahuasca Process computing Process management Anthropology

The globalization of ayahuasca: Harm reduction or benefit maximization?

International Journal of Drug Policy December 5, 2006 Kenneth W. Tupper 207 citations

Ayahuasca is a tea made from two plants native to the Amazon, Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis, which, respectively, contain the psychoactive chemicals harmala alkaloids and dimethyltryptamine. The tea has been used by indigenous peoples in countries such as Brazil, Ecuador and Peru for medicinal, spiritual and cultural purposes since pre-Columbian times. In the 20th century,...

DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2006.11.001 Ayahuasca Indigenous Globalization Environmental ethics

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