“I'm betting it's going to be more good than bad, but I have some big concerns about where things are headed,” warns Dr. Matthew Johnson of Johns Hopkins University when prognosticating about what impact the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment will have on society at large. As he tells host Shiv Gaglani, once these compounds are more widely available, there is real potential for unscrupulous actors to take advantage of people and cults to form. “One of the critiques is about this “new religion” component. I've been really concerned about that because I see even within the deepest layers of science, it’s very difficult to trust people with the magnitude of effect psychedelics have in people.” It's perhaps surprising for one of the scientists responsible for the renaissance in psychedelic research to articulate those concerns, but Dr. Johnson notes there is a long history, going back centuries, of psychedelics waxing and waning due to social and political factors. For now, he is focused on the efficacy of psychedelics in combating nicotine addiction, an area he pioneered starting a decade ago. Preliminary results of a study building on his early work indicate psychedelic-assisted therapy may be twice as effective as the leading nicotine replacement therapy. Up next is a multi-site trial on nicotine, plus studies on using LSD to treat chronic pain and psylocibin to deal with opioid addiction and PTSD. Don’t miss this thoughtful, nuanced and super informative discussion on one of the most interesting areas in medical science today.