Psychedelic Sensationalism: An Analysis of the Schedule Classification of Psilocybin

Abstract

In 1970, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration passed the Controlled Substances Act. This statute classified and banned a variety of drugs including psilocybin, the psychoactive component found in Psilocybe Cubensis (also known as "Magic Mushrooms"). Though psilocybin was known to possess many medical benefits and cause no serious side effects, the Controlled Substances Act designated it as one of the most dangerous drugs, earning it a Schedule I classification. This meant possession and use incurred the highest level of legal punishment, and psilocybin could not be used under any circumstances, including in a medical setting. Based on biochemical properties alone, psilocybin does not fit the criteria to be a Schedule I drug, which suggests some other factors must have contributed to its legal classification. This paper analyzes primary and secondary sources to explore the anthropological and political motives that may have influenced psilocybin's schedule classification. The evidence that psilocybin's reputation in the eyes of the government was damaged due to its association with hippies and the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper asserts that drug regulation was used as a form of social control that aimed to stifle the progressive ideals of the youth counterculture movement and reinforce conservative American ideals.