Younger Americans More Open to Medical Use of Psychedelics

While a majority of Americans remain skeptical as to whether psychedelic substances have medical use, a Hill-HarrisX poll published on Tuesday showed that certain groups are far more likely to accept the concept.

In a poll of 1,899 registered voters conducted May 21-23, 65% overall said psychedelics do not have medical uses. Results among younger voters specifically, however, told a different story, as 53% of those ages 18 to 29 said psychedelics have medicinal benefits. There was a similarly stark split across political party lines: 43% of Democrats and 41% of independents said psychedelics have medical purposes compared to just 23% of Republicans.

Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, head of psychedelic research at Imperial College London in England and a steering committee member for the Sana Symposium, told BusinessInsider.com that with recent research by Imperial College showing that psilocybin has produced similar results to traditional medications in the treatment of severe major depressive disorder, What's on the table now is the prospect that psilocybin therapy could be an alternative to SSRIs, if it's at least as good. What we're showing is that people could consider psilocybin therapy earlier on in the course of a depression.”

Last year, voters in Oregon approved a ballot measure to make the state the first in the nation to legalize the use of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes in supervised settings.