This is part of FJN’s Topic Briefs for Journalists series.
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Fast facts to provide context for covering the nuanced topic of psychedelics:
- For thousands of years, psychedelics have served as integrated elements in the everyday life, culture and religion of indigenous cultures.
- For more than 100 years, psychedelics have led a tumultuous existence between politics and morality, myths and prohibitions, use and abuse, therapy, pleasure – and research.
- Since 2000 there’s been an opening for resumption of research, and psychedelics seem to possess great potential in the treatment of mental disorders.
- Psychedelics are not risk-free. Using them without expert guidance or not having control over the content can lead to lasting trauma and other accidents. Black-market substances may be extremely dangerous.
- Psychedelics represent a smaller share of overall revenues from global illicit drug trade, compared with cannabis, cocaine, and opioids. In darknet drug sales, around 9% to 10% of online transactions involve psychedelic substances, according to journal Drug Science in 2023. Darknet drug markets are generating more than $1.7 billion via cryptocurrency-enabled drug transactions in 2024, as reported by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
- In the late 1960s and early 1970s psychedelics had a great impact on music, cinema, literature, and art. Key examples include Pink Floyd, Stanley Kubrick and Carlos Castaneda.
Compiled by Jesper Madsen for FJN.
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