Neurodope Magazine

Suits versus tie-dye. Psilocybin meets PowerPoint. LSD sits in the corner while MDMA networks politely. Oakland’s Psychedelic Science conference proves that the line between scientific rigor and cosmic curiosity is just a thin, glowing haze.

A Two-World Collision

Half the attendees wear suits, badges, and carefully curated skepticism. The other half wear tie-dye, beads, and shoes that smell faintly of patchouli. One side presents peer-reviewed results on psilocybin for cancer anxiety, the other side can describe in minute detail the color of their last hallucination.

Both sides nod politely. Researchers stress safety, while enthusiasts nod like it’s Thanksgiving and everyone’s passing the cranberry sauce. Bicycle Day—commemorating Albert Hofmann’s famous 1943 LSD bike ride—splits the crowd cleanly: some pedal into history, others remain to discuss sample sizes and statistical significance.

Suits, shrooms, and science collide in Oakland. The psychedelic conference is part lab, part reunion, part acid trip. #Neurodope #Psychedelics share this

Research Tripping in Academia

Despite decades of Schedule I taboos, psychedelics have clawed their way back into legitimate research. Trials for MDMA in PTSD and psilocybin in terminal cancer anxiety show promise. Small sample sizes, enthusiastic participants, and a hint of counterculture nostalgia keep reviewers awake at night.

Funding still depends on enthusiasts. Private backers smile at rainbow-colored presentations while universities quietly hedge bets, approving small-scale trials with the same caution one might apply to handling plutonium. Science cautiously meets shrooms.

MDMA for PTSD, psilocybin for cancer anxiety. Science cautiously shakes hands with psychedelics. #Neurodope #PsychedelicScience share this

Cultural Theater Meets Controlled Variables

Posters of hallucinogen histories share space with hand-painted mushroom art and guided meditation corners. Participants practice deep breathing next to demonstrations of alternative therapies. One moment it’s a lab meeting, the next it’s Burning Man with charts.

Researchers are friendly, but never too friendly. Enthusiasts are charming, but never particularly careful. Everyone is serious about fun, and serious about data. The conference becomes a microcosm of psychedelic science: equal parts rigour, rebellion, and rainbow chaos.

Psychedelic Science 2019: where scientific rigor awkwardly high-fives tie-dye. #Neurodope #Psilocybin share this

LSD incapacitates a military effort.

Solution: give it to both sides..

 

From Counterculture to Clinical Trials

The ghosts of Timothy Leary and Stanislav Grof linger. Psychedelics were once the domain of the counterculture, now they cautiously infiltrate medical research. Early trials are promising, with safety verified and preliminary efficacy observed. The serious and the stoned have found a tentative handshake.

The road ahead is still murky. Regulatory hurdles, conventional funding, and larger trials are required before psychedelics earn full respectability. For now, the Oakland conference remains a curious hybrid: part science fair, part commune, all spectacle.

Oakland’s psychedelic conference: halfway between academic rigor and tie-dye chaos. #Neurodope #Psychedelics share this

Sources

The Chronicle

Psychedelic Science 2019 Conference Program – Oakland, CA

Grob, Charles et al., Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety in Advanced-Stage Cancer Patients (2011)

Nichols, David E., “Psychedelics as Medicines” – Pharmacological Reviews, 2016