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[electronic beeping, buzzing]

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[indistinct chatter]

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[cheering]

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[metal music plays]

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[narrator] After retiring
from the NHL in 2015,

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34-year-old Daniel Carcillo

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believes his career
as the Chicago Blackhawks enforcer

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has left him with traumatic brain injury.

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[pensive electronic music plays]

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I was dealing with impulse-control issues,
insomnia, slurred speech,

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anxiety, depression.

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[narrator] When conventional medicine
doesn't seem to help,

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in 2019,
he turns to a controversial therapy,

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psilocybin from psychedelic mushrooms.

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And for him, it seems to work.

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It helped to reset my brain.

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It helped to break a bunch
of the destructive thought patterns

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that I was stuck in.
Everything started to get better.

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[narrator] Carcillo's story is one of many

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that are challenging
society's long-held opinions

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about psychedelic drugs.

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[psychedelic music plays]

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In America,

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psychedelics, including LSD,
psilocybin, and MDMA

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are classified as Schedule I drugs

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and face the strictest regulations.

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{\an8}But over 30 million Americans

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{\an8}claim to have tried psychedelics
of one kind or another.

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A clinical trial
for people suffering from PTSD

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revealed that MDMA-assisted therapy helped
67% of participants with their problems.

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And in one survey,
85% of mental-health professionals

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believed the use
of psychedelics in therapy

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deserves more research.

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Still, though the drugs themselves
aren't as addictive as cocaine or opioids,

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they can be confusing and overwhelming.

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[music distorts]

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With growing evidence that psychedelics
may help treat brain injury

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and psychological problems

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and even improve creativity,

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is it time they got a second chance?

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[upbeat music plays]

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In the 2010s,
a new word gains widespread attention.

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Microdosing.

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Taking tiny doses of psychedelics

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in an effort to become
more productive and creative.

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[woman] They're not hippies.
They're tech bros, artists, investors,

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even entrepreneurs.

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These are the people,
um, influencing the world.

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These are the companies
that are reaching far and wide all over.

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[narrator] And it's not just
young professionals

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turning back on to these drugs.

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Psychedelics, like MDMA,
are undergoing clinical trials

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to see
if they might help military veterans

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with post-traumatic stress disorder.

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{\an8}After those three MDMA sessions,

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{\an8}I haven't had a nightmare
about the war since.

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[narrator] But psychedelics
are still illegal and highly controversial

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and have been for half a century.

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How did we get here?

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Well, it's been quite a trip.

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Humans have been using psychedelics
for thousands of years.

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The story of modern psychedelics
begins in 1943

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with Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann.

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As he's working on a new drug
for respiratory problems,

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he notices something very unusual
about its effect on the human body.

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One day in the lab,

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a small amount gets on his fingers
and makes its way into his bloodstream,

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putting him into a dreamlike state.

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Curious, Hofmann swallows 250 micrograms,

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a gargantuan dose,

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and sets out for home on his bicycle.

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[bike bell dings]

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Hofmann's trip is disorientating at first.

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He feels possessed by a demon…

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[echoing evil laughter]

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…and sees a witch.

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[witch cackles]

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But after the trip,

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he experiences a profound sensation
of oneness with the natural world.

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The drug is named after
its chemical structure,

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lysergic acid diethylamide,

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aka LSD.

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By the 1950s,

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psychologists are experimenting
with the new drug,

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with one Canadian clinic
treating alcoholics with psychotherapy

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and a dose of LSD.

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They report a 50% success rate.

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Doctors take notice.

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This could be a huge asset

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in the treatment
of many serious mental-health conditions.

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{\an8}When properly qualified physicians use it,

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{\an8}I do not consider it a drug
that's any more dangerous

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{\an8}than any other drug used in medicine.

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But LSD's psychological effects
are unpredictable at best.

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Here's what we do know.

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LSD's impact on the brain
has to do with serotonin,

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{\an8}a chemical messenger in the body
thought to regulate our mood.

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The brain has at least 14 known types
of serotonin receptors

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that process the chemical,

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moderating our emotions and perceptions.

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{\an8}LSD molecules latch onto
one of these serotonin receptors,

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influencing not only our mood

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but what we see and hear…

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[distant cats meow]

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…even distorting our sense
of the passage of time.

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{\an8}This is the trip.

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{\an8}It can be positive,

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{\an8}but it can also be terrible.

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It seems to depend
on the individual's state of mind

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and the environment they're in
when they take the trip.

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[psychedelic music plays]

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LSD isn't the only drug
with these effects.

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In 1960, Harvard professor of psychology
Timothy Leary

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is on a research trip in Mexico,

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where he ingests mushrooms
that contain a chemical called psilocybin.

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The first experience I had was
with seven little mushrooms in Mexico.

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{\an8}For the five hours
after I ate these mushrooms,

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{\an8}I learned more about psychology

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than I had in the preceding 16 years
as a psychologist.

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Since that time, I've done almost nothing
but attempt to study,

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to learn more about
how these experiences are produced

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and how they can be used
for man's benefit.

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[narrator] Hopeful
that this natural psychedelic

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might prove useful in psychotherapy,

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in 1961,

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Leary and his team of therapists

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launch what they call
the Concord Prison Experiment.

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-[trap beat plays]
-[sirens wail]

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They work with 32 prisoners,

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putting them
under the influence of psilocybin.

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Then, the therapists ask the prisoners

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to describe
their often traumatic life histories

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and hopes for the future

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to help them confront
the root of their criminality.

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Leary theorizes that this
should make them less likely to re-offend.

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It seems to work.

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Usually, within six months
of being paroled,

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64% of them would commit
a new crime or break parole.

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The study claims

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that this treatment reduces
the likelihood of returning to prison

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by almost two-thirds.

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[upbeat synth music plays]

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Leary seems to be on the verge

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of proving that psychedelics
have real value in psychotherapy,

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but his experimental methods
are questioned

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and word gets out

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that some of the research team
are taking the drug as well.

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The Harvard administration fires Leary.

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His academic career may be over,

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but Leary will be
a psychedelic icon for decades to come.

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Meanwhile, in California,
over in the Bay Area,

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another group is experimenting with LSD

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to see if it might be useful
for mind control

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or as a truth serum.

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The CIA.

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One of their test subjects,
novelist Ken Kesey…

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-[vocalizing]
-[laughter]

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{\an8}The CIA brought LSD
into the USA. [chuckles]

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It was the government.
The government's giving us drugs.

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It's bound to be good stuff.
It was, the best stuff of all.

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[narrator] Kesey is so inspired

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by the drug's creative
and spiritual potential,

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he steals some to share with his friends.

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They call it acid.

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[Kesey] What you have here
is the gathering of the tribe.

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Well, the acid tribe.

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Everyone here has been
through the whole scene.

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[jam rock music plays]

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[narrator] By 1965,

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they begin making their own LSD,

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sharing it at parties in the Bay Area.

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Kesey's house band, The Warlocks,
begin drawing larger and larger crowds

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and change their name
to the Grateful Dead.

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[reporter] The Grateful Dead themselves
acknowledge they have used LSD.

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[narrator] The band and the crowd
take acid not just to have fun

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but to liberate their consciousness.

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{\an8}We would all like to be able
to live an uncluttered life,

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{\an8}a simple life, a good life, you know,

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and, like, think about moving
the whole human race ahead a step.

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{\an8}And one of the ways
of achieving that being is drugs.

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{\an8}-[man] Through expanding your…
-Consciousness.

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{\an8}[man] Consciousness.

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[narrator] Kesey and his entourage
even head out across the US

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in an old school bus,

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spreading the news about LSD.

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By the mid '60s,

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psychedelics are on their way
to the heart of pop culture,

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and by 1967, even the biggest band
in the world is doing it.

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{\an8}[man] Paul, how often have you taken LSD?

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{\an8}About four times.

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[narrator] It's no surprise musicians
and artists are intrigued by the stuff.

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Psychedelics affect how we see and hear,

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similar to a neurological phenomenon
found in some highly creative individuals,

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synesthesia.

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00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:06,760
Synesthesia is where one sense stimulation
blends with another sense in the brain.

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00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:10,080
Like when colors are heard
as well as seen…

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00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:11,480
[high-pitched tones play]

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00:11:11,560 --> 00:11:13,760
…or music is seen as well as heard.

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00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:15,400
[music overlapping with tones]

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00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,760
LSD users can experience
similar phenomena,

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00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,400
like seeing shifting patterns of color
when listening to music.

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00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:25,240
And in one experiment,

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00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,480
when a blind person on LSD
listened to Bach,

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00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,320
he felt liquid cascade over him,
as if he were standing under a waterfall.

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A state of mind
thought only to be available

206
00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:39,640
to those born with synesthesia.

207
00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:44,240
[jam rock music plays]

208
00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,640
Inspired by LSD activists
like Leary and Kesey,

209
00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:54,400
more and more young people
are starting to turn on, tune in,

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00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:55,640
and drop out.

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00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:58,440
[reporter] These people are hippies.

212
00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:01,720
They represent
a new form of social rebellion.

213
00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:04,440
[narrator] Nearly 100,000 young people

214
00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,880
{\an8}flock to San Francisco's
Haight-Ashbury neighborhood

215
00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:09,120
{\an8}for the Summer of Love.

216
00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:13,160
A communal celebration of hippie music,

217
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,440
{\an8}free love, the anti-war movement,

218
00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:17,760
{\an8}and LSD.

219
00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:20,800
A backlash is almost inevitable.

220
00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:22,520
[ominous music plays]

221
00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:25,360
[reporter] Their diversions
might seem to be harmless enough

222
00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:26,800
were it not for one thing.

223
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:28,800
The drug is extremely dangerous.

224
00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:33,320
[narrator] America's fears
about the hippies and their favorite drug

225
00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:35,760
are stoked by sensational news stories.

226
00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:38,040
[sirens wail]

227
00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:40,960
[reporter] There is a steady flow
into San Francisco hospitals

228
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:42,920
of young people who have "freaked out"

229
00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:46,720
and been picked up by the police
in a state of desperate terror.

230
00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:49,240
[sirens wail]

231
00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,000
[narrator] 1968 is a violent year
in America.

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00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:58,240
Civil unrest erupts over the Vietnam War,

233
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,760
and tragic assassinations
traumatize the nation.

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00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:06,960
That November,
Richard Nixon wins the presidency

235
00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,240
on a platform of law and order

236
00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:11,080
with an electoral mandate

237
00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:14,400
to put the psychedelic-loving hippies
in their place.

238
00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:20,800
Despite LSD still being used
in clinical research into the late 1960s,

239
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:23,840
the writing is on the wall
for psychedelics.

240
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:29,040
America's public enemy number one
in the United States

241
00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:30,600
is drug abuse.

242
00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:33,880
In order to fight and defeat this enemy,

243
00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:38,280
it is necessary
to wage a new all-out offensive.

244
00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:41,840
[narrator] In 1970,

245
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:45,760
{\an8}the Nixon Administration
adds LSD and psilocybin

246
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:49,320
{\an8}to the most restricted
list of Schedule I drugs,

247
00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:50,840
{\an8}alongside heroin,

248
00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:54,920
{\an8}slamming the brakes
on psychedelic research in the US.

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00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:57,600
{\an8}The next year,

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{\an8}the United Nations
extends restrictions across the globe

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{\an8}with their Convention
on Psychotropic Substances.

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For scientists around the world
trying to understand

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whether psychedelic therapy
can help treat mental illness,

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this is a major setback.

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[upbeat music plays]

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With LSD off-limits
for use in psychotherapy,

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scientists are on the lookout
for a legal alternative

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so they can continue their research.

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And in the late 1970s,

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{\an8}a drug-enforcement-agency-approved chemist
finds what they're looking for.

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Federal officials call it
an underground drug

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that's going nationwide.

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[man] The LSD of the '80s.

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[dance music plays]

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[narrator] MDMA was originally created
in 1912 to control bleeding.

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Although not
a classic psychedelic like LSD,

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it does have psychedelic effects,

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but it also creates
intense feelings of empathy

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{\an8}and even euphoria.

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{\an8}By the mid-'80s,

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up to 150 American therapists
find it useful in psychotherapy sessions.

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{\an8}If you're dealing with couples or groups
who have emotional bonds,

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this is a way of deepening.

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It creates a state
of what I call high empathy.

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[narrator] But as with
previous psychedelics,

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the temptation to use MDMA
as a recreational drug is hard to resist,

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especially on the dance floors
of the 1980s,

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where it's known as ecstasy.

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[woman] It's instant love.

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It's like bein' on a cloud.

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It's indescribable. You have to be there.
It's just really ecstasy.

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{\an8}Investigators say the use of ecstasy
is growing at an alarming rate

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on college campuses across the country.

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[narrator] Just as with LSD,

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officials look on the new psychedelic
as a public-health threat.

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We have enough cocaine and heroin
and marijuana out there, and LSD and PCP

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and abuse of legitimate drugs.
We don't need another drug out there.

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[narrator] In 1985, the US outlaws MDMA,

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adding it to Schedule I,
alongside LSD and psilocybin,

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as well as marijuana and quaaludes.

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And the following year,

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MDMA is heavily prohibited
by the UN around the world.

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And just as with LSD,

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further research
on MDMA's benefits for psychotherapy

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is put on the back burner.

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[electronic dance music plays

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From the mid-'80s into the '90s,

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psychedelics may be underground,
but they're still popular.

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As of 1997,

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one in 16 American high schoolers
claims to have tried ecstasy,

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but their illegality

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still makes scientific research
practically impossible.

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Then, in the late 1990s,

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the birthplace of the Summer of Love
bears witness to a new revolution.

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The titans of technology,
Apple and Microsoft,

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are flourishing
in what's known as Silicon Valley.

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[rock music plays]

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It's a golden age of tech innovation,

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where creative, out-of-the-box thinking
defines success.

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In an interview in 2005,

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Apple's CEO Steve Jobs
reveals that taking LSD in his youth

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was one of the most important things
he'd done in his life.

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A new generation asks the big question.

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{\an8}Could psychedelics
like LSD and psilocybin be useful,

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{\an8}not as party drugs, but as smart drugs?

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Normally, neurons, the cells used
for communication within the brain,

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fire in predictable patterns of activity.

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In particular,
visual information is processed

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in the back of the brain,
in an area called the visual cortex.

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But if a person takes
a psychedelic like LSD,

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something unusual happens.

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Visual information
now appears to be processed

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in additional areas of the brain…

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which suggests
that psychedelics enable communication

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between parts of the brain
that don't usually connect,

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allowing the brain to work more freely.

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Psychedelics could fuel
a coder's great new idea,

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but there's a very real downside to them.

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They can be a real problem
if taken in too large an amount.

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In 2011,

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psychologist James Fadiman
proposes a radical idea.

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What if these beneficial effects
of psychedelics could be harnessed

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without the drawbacks?

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The idea is simple,

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reduce the dose of the psychedelic
to one-tenth of the usual amount

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so that your brain
receives the benefits of the drug

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without the hallucinations.

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He calls it microdosing.

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{\an8}Microdosing, it turns out,
makes you feel better.

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People basically have improved work,

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00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:13,240
amount, discrimination, flow, quality.

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Also I have a couple of notes that say,

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"Boy, if people knew
what it did for your libido,

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you would have a product!"

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[man laughs]

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[narratorBy 2015, a growing number
of Silicon Valley professionals

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are microdosing psychedelics
like psilocybin,

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00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,040
LSD, and other drugs.

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{\an8}About 45 minutes after I microdose,

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{\an8}I notice just a general mood enhancement.
It's a little bit easier to smile.

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I'm a little bit more extroverted.
I'm less in my head

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and more engaged in my outer world,

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so generally, it just…
it kinda smooths things out.

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[narrator] Because psychedelics
are illegal,

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it's hard to study these effects
and others scientifically.

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But in the 2010s,

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as the combative policies
of the War on Drugs

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start to face serious opposition
from doctors,

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00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,600
social-justice advocates,
and the general public,

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scientists start taking a fresh look
at the benefits of psychedelics.

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Up to one in five military veterans
suffers from PTSD,

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a leading cause of suicide
among former service members.

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{\an8}I stabbed myself in the neck
and the wrist with a knife.

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I just wanted the pain to stop.

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[narrator] Many,
like ex-US Marine Scott Ostrom,

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have suffered suicidal thoughts

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and uncontrollable anger
since they left the war zone.

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And conventional therapy
doesn't always work.

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The standard treatments for PTSD

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{\an8}tend not to really solve the problem
for most people.

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[narrator] In a new clinical trial,
combining therapy with doses of MDMA,

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Ostrom finds himself better able
to face his traumatic memories

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so he can work through them verbally.

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It really did change my life.

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In a short period of time, in six months.

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[narrator] Ostrom becomes
one of the 67% of the trial's participants

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whose PTSD is successfully treated.

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00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:22,720
The results from the latest Phase 3 trial
of MDMA were just astounding.

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00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,400
I would absolutely call this
a breakthrough.

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[narrator] Across the US and Europe,

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00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:33,200
psychedelic research projects
on LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA

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are increasing in number.

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00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:36,800
{\an8}We hear patients saying,

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00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,280
{\an8}"I've seen the light.
I can see my problems in a new light."

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00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:45,760
[narrator] And this growth in research
is accompanied by changing laws

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00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:47,000
across the US.

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00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:51,920
{\an8}In 2019,

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00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,800
{\an8}Denver, Colorado, decriminalizes
psychedelic mushrooms for personal use,

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00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:01,120
followed a month later
by the city of Oakland, California.

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00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:03,840
Then in 2020,

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00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:08,840
Oregon becomes the first state
to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use

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00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,480
{\an8}and decriminalizes possession
of small amounts of LSD,

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00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,200
{\an8}MDMA, and psilocybin,
alongside other drugs.

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00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:19,280
And they likely won't be the last.

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00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:26,160
The road to full approval
for psychedelic-assisted therapy

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00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:27,720
may prove long,

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00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,800
but while humanity may not be ready
for another outbreak of hippie mania,

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00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,200
future historians may well
look upon the coming decades

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00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,680
as a new age of psychedelics.

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00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:43,840
[psychedelic music plays]