Freedom of Recreation: A Critique of the Prohibition, Decriminalization, and Legal Regulation of Psychedelics for Recreational Use
Jason K. Day, Michael Th. Grooff
Contemporary Drug Problems August 28, 2025 DOI: 10.1177/00914509251371749 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mescaline Psilocybin |
| Keywords | Decriminalization Recreational drug Recreational use Harm reduction Law Criminology Hallucinogen Public health |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that the premises underlying the UN prohibition of recreational psychedelics are false, making prohibition unjustified, and proposes communalization as an alternative. |
Abstract
Established by the 1971 United Nations (UN) Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the prohibition of the recreational use of psychedelics (lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD], psilocybin, N , N -dimethyltryptamine [ N , N -DMT], and mescaline) has two premises. First, recreational use poses a serious threat to public health because psychedelics are highly liable to addiction and abuse. Second, psychedelics have only limited scientific and medical uses. In this article, we raise the following questions: are these premises true such that prohibition is justified? If not, are decriminalization and legal regulation justified alternatives? Drawing on interdisciplinary research, we show that the premises of prohibition are false. Psychedelics are not highly liable to addiction or abuse, and so recreational use is not a serious threat to public health. Moreover, the uses of psychedelics exceed medical and scientific uses. Prohibition, we conclude, is therefore unjustified. We then show that decriminalization is based on the same false premises as prohibition, that legal regulation is based on weaker versions of these premises, and thus that both alternatives entail unjustified restrictions on recreational users. Finally, we present a fourth approach: communalization. This entails that all adults have the freedom to recreationally use psychedelics without restrictions and that communities provide harm reduction and benefit enhancement services to support this freedom.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mescaline, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schizophrenia: A New Approach. II. Result of a Year's Research | 1954 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Thought insertion as a self-disturbance: An integration of predictive coding and phenomenological approaches | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Entactogens: How the Name for a Novel Class of Psychoactive Agents Originated | 2022 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Steric and Electronic Relationships among Some Hallucinogenic Compounds | 1970 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| EFFECT OF DRUGS One individual | 1952 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | n = 1 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 82
- Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms: Acute and enduring positive and negative consequences Journal of Psychopharmacology August 31, 2016
- The abuse potential of medical psilocybin according to the 8 factors of the Controlled Substances Act Neuropharmacology June 5, 2018
- Psychiatry & the psychedelic drugs. Past, present & future. Neuropharmacology December 25, 2017
- Psychedelics and Mental Health: A Population Study PLoS One August 19, 2013
- Adverse effects of psychedelics: From anecdotes and misinformation to systematic science. Journal of Psychopharmacology February 2, 2022
and 77 more in the library