Psychedelic Education
Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction
The use of psychedelics can provide many potential benefits such as healing, spiritual connection, growth, and the alleviation of symptoms related to alcoholism, depression, and anxiety. But like many things, they come with risks and may be dangerous and inappropriate for some people or in certain settings.
PSA urges anyone interested in using psychedelics to educate themselves and/or consult with health care professionals and psychedelic facilitators to maximize potential positive outcomes and ensure their safety. Education about psychedelics will benefit you as well as the community.
Things to consider when exploring the use of psychedelics:
- The support of a trained psychedelic professional, mental health professional, close friend, or family member during the experience can be of great benefit and provide an extra layer of safety for you.
- A psychedelic experience is highly influenced by set and setting. Set is your internal world: current emotional state, implicit and explicit belief systems, personality type, etc. Setting is the container and all that is occurring around you in which your psychedelic experience will take place: indoors or outdoors, alone or in a ceremony, silence or with music, eye shades or eyes open, etc.
- Testing your substances is extremely important. Because psychedelics are currently illegal, there is a risk that substances are adulterated or misidentified. Purchasing and using test kits from groups like Dancesafe or BunkPolice will increase the chance that the substance you are taking is safe and what you are expecting.
- Psychedelics are not for everyone. It is strongly advised that people with psychosis or those with a close family member with psychotic disorders avoid psychedelics. Furthermore, there are contraindications between psychedelics and certain medications. Mixing medications and psychedelics can increase the risk of serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal medical condition. We advise that you speak with your medical professional about the risks to you before making the decision to explore psychedelics. Please refer to the following chart below to review important mental health or medication contra-indicators that may make a psychedelic experience non suitable without additional clearance from a psychedelically informed mental health professional.
- We recommend thinking about a psychedelic experience not only as the time you spend in an altered state but the entire process of preparation, journey, and integration. Framing your experience with these three stages in mind can increase your benefit and potentially make better sense of what you experience.
How to Choose a Guide:
Fire Side
Fire Side
Fireside is an organization whose mission is, “to help people minimize the risks of their psychedelic experiences in ways such as providing compassionate, accessible, and culturally responsive peer support, educating the public, and furthering psychedelic research, while embracing practices that increase equity, power sharing, and belonging within the psychedelic movement.” They offer a Psychedelic Peer Support Line which provides emotional support during and after psychedelic experiences. The support line is open from 11:00am to 11:00pm PST every day. Call or text 62-FIRESIDE to reach them.
Substance Interaction
