Great, Ray L and his team are releasing a lot of papers on the subject. I must, once again though (ugh) relay my mixed feelings. I honestly think, in my tiny opinion, that 5meoDMT (NOT toad venom, but the active ingredient in it) is probably the most powerful of known psychedelics in it's capacity to give transformative experiences and is a the best candidate to perfectly re-create a true mystical experience from an external stimuli. That is, it is the only drug that I am aware of that can reliably produce a state that is exceedingly similar to that described by mystics throughout the written record- Samadhi, a kundalini awakening, breaking the veil, whatever the terms. It also perfectly recreates the Near-Death_Experience in that term's definition of an after life out-of-body experience. For this reason, it is both an incredible tool and incredibly dangerous.
For me, one complete breakthrough with it several years ago provided enough material to chew on that it is still feeding me a half-decade later, and I credit that 20 minutes with completely changing-and saving-my life. I did not have a facilitator, nor did I need one during the acute trip phase, but during the ensuing weeks in which I was spontaneously having out-of-body trips and deeper and deeper sober experiences, I almost lost my mind. I don't think I'm in any way special, but do think that certain predispositions and experience helped me retain my sanity and to eventually integrate the trip into a new synthesis of self that to this day I continue to mold.
I've seen a ton of abuses and victimization from all angles with the toad venom-far more than with just 5meoDMT- and it has gotten to a point with multiple egregious allegations and verified crimes and tragedies as a direct result of these actions by enough individuals to have some real concern about the underlying commonality, which is toad venom. It is not ayahuasca, it is not psilocybin, it is not "the dark DMT" some idiots talk about, it is light and can blind those who look directly into it.
So I see papers like this and wonder what the long vision is with this. I get the research of this kind with psilocybin, cannabis, et al and support it, but I'm a little left of ambivalent with this kind of prosylitic stuff about 5meo, and even more so toad venom. Along with the my feeling that it supports those who want to give an apotheosis to an amphibian and continues the language that confuses experience with the container along with lending credence to all the other stupid stuff toad people do and get away with like ask for donations to buy land to create a preserve for a nearly pest species so they can milk them and sell the drugs back to those supporters, they promote a practice that I fear can end the psychedelic renaissance and send it right into the hands of industry and medicine, by declaring the drugs inherently dangerous and therefore needing licensed guidance based upon what has, can and will happen with 5meoDMT, which is in an entire other ballpark than all the others and should not be a metric for their safety.
I hate to be that guy, but does the academic team involved with this have a dog in that race? I could easily see how, rather than decriminalizing, having psychedelics be the sole province of doctors and therapists who have special medical licenses could be in their best economic interest. And from what I've seen, the first thing a lot of people want to know once they've seen God is how to sell tickets and profit from it.
I did not see anything at all in the paper about the mental health CHALLENGES that it presents, and there is no denying anymore that these are very real.
