This review describes the central role that this journal, and its founder Dr. David Smith, has played in documenting the second wave of psychedelic research. As modern culture enters a third wave of the psychedelic revival, the journal has witnessed and supported research exploring the therapeutic uses of psychedelics. The article traces this historical trajectory, highlighting how the journal has served as a key platform for scholarship on psychedelic medicine and therapy across these eras.
A clinical toxicology trainee living in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury in 1965 studied psychedelics such as LSD, mescaline, and ibogaine in both human and animal models. At that time, these substances were used therapeutically in clinical settings and also researched as potential antipersonnel agents by the U.S. government. Their use became a rite of passage for the countercultural movement. After adverse reactions and negative publicity, states began criminalizing these drugs in 1966, and the federal government later classified them as Schedule 1, which nearly halted all research.