We have been interested in the developing field of psychedelic research for some time. Our Guild President, Dr. Carroll, published an extensive review of psychedelics as medications in the Linacre Quarterly last year.
In this context, we read with interest a recent article by Joe Welker, a self-described former psychedelic user turned critic, who has written extensively on his own experiences with psychedelics and the related culture. More recently, he became a whistleblower on a John’s Hopkins psychedelic research study involving clergy, leading to IRB censure of the researchers and suppression of compromised data.
Joe now provides us with a lengthy piece reviewing and critiquing a recent article by self-described psychedelic advocate Michael Pollen (of How to Change Your Mind fame). Here’s a summary from Joe’s piece:
In sum, Pollan’s piece circumvented IRB regulators who had, in their mercy, just allowed them to publish controversial data at risk of the IRB’s own reputation. A major media platform was then used to launder ethically problematic research in lieu of formal publication. While Pollan may have felt justified as they were blended in with his personal interviews with participants, and he saw that as the essence of the story, it still means ethically compromised, non-peer-reviewed research was presented to millions of readers without the essential context that Hopkins deemed mandatory for public consumption.
