7/25/2019 Academic Fear -- Psychedelic Scholars Fe
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Excerpt from You Have a Constitutional Right to Psychedelics:
Academic Freedom
Personal Conscience and Psychotechnologies! Chapter " in The
Psychedelic Policy
Quagmire: Health, Law, Freedom, and Society #$%"&' () H)
Ellens and *) +) Ro,erts#editors') A+C-C./0 1anta +ar,ara CA) pages
$2-$3
Academic Fear
Although these items show that some welcome progress is being
made in thefrontiers of psychedelic scholarship, when I lecture, it
isnt unusual forsomeone afterward to talk with me privately, I wish
I could teach a class likeyours (or publish professionally on
psychedelics) at X niversity or ! "ollege#$Additionally, during the
winter months I receive e%mails from college seniorswho would like
to &nd graduate programs where they can pursue theirpsychedelic
interests academically# nfortunately, there are very few andalmost
all are in the health &elds# 'hese reuests come along so
freuentlythat Ive collected my suggestions into a paper
sychedelics* +ints on
ooking for -raduate rograms$ at my
website(www#niu#academia#edu.'homas/oberts)# "urrently, would%be
professors in&elds other than psychiatry and clinical
psychology have to take traditionalsingle%state programs and hope
to e0pand their careers later to include theirpsychedelic
interests# Among the increasing number of ad1unct professorswhose
1obs are temporary and tenuous, there is fear that they wont
berehired if they come out of the psychedelic closet# In what
should be an openand free marketplace of ideas, these scholars are
second%class citi2ens,almost prisoners#
Is this situation one that*
a) universities should willingly allowb) a free society
producesc) increases individuals 1oy of livingd) professional
societies ought to encourage
page 24The Psychedelic Policy Quagmire
e) the heirs of the 3nlightenment want to inheritf) helps
scientists, humanists, and artists be productiveg) civil
libertarians accepth) improves democracyi) respects personal
freedom and conscience
1) none of the above
Answer* 1+ow can policy makers strike a rational balance between
psychedelicsdangers and bene&ts4 'his is another type of issue
that considers powerfuland dangerous things like &re, knives,
guns, cars, and money# As with these,there is bound to be no
solution that holds in every instance or that all peoplewill agree
on# "onsidering the previous evidence and elsewhere, for
