Drugs.

Sometime between the late 1930's and now, the term hallucinogen became bastardized. There was a point in time when the word provoked scientific curiosity as opposed to images of baggy shirt, tattooed hooligans. There are two reasons for this shift.

The first, probably most recognizable, is the increased use of hallucinogenic substances for recreational purposes. Sometime in the 1930s, one Albert Hoffman discovered the substance (or rather, isolated) that would come to be recognized as LSD. Around the same time, the great ethnobotanist Richard Schultz published considerable amounts of research regarding a few curious plants used used throughout the Amazon and southern Mexico by indigenous people for religious purpose. Peyotee, Turbina Corymbosa (better know as morning glory), and the Psilocybin Mushroom were amongst them. It has been argued by many that the work of these two men gave birth to modern hallucinogenic culture.

To put it simply, widespread use leads to widespread misuse. Bad press on the substances became common place and most research seized by the 1980s.

The second reason is rooted in, as many contemporary problems are, colonialism. Generally speaking, upon seeing the "unchristian" rituals of many indigenous Mexican and South American tribes, colonizers published literature which demonized use of hallucinogenic "devil plants." I use the word "generally" as I cannot account for every instance of colonial extortion. Rather, I generalize. It is probable though that these early colonial responses to the uses of such plant still leak into society.

Now, as a result of such scrutiny, the public has been fed a wealth of misinformation regarding the nature of hallucinogens. Some of the more scandalous claims I have heard include eroding of the spinal cord, bleeding of the brain, and blinding of the eyes--all as a result of ingestion. This sort of misinformation is both untrue and dangerous.

Education and public access to information regarding safe use of hallucinogens has reached the same stand still that sexual education was once overcome with. Users will not stop existing by hand of simple propaganda. And so, it is more wise to offer transparency of knowledge thereby minimizing misuse.