People who microdose psychedelics often follow a multi-stage journey that involves becoming aware of the practice, researching and reframing risks, securing a reliable supply, experimenting with doses and schedules, stabilizing a routine that feels right for them, and eventually expanding their sense of connection to themselves and others. Based on interviews with 23 current, prospective, or past microdosers, the research identifies these phases as non-linear and varied across individuals. The process requires considerable effort to manage stigma, maintain supply, and document effects. This phased model offers a way to understand drug-use patterns that do not fit conventional addiction-focused frameworks.
Stigma, a form of social devaluation that elicits shame and othering, can also undergo positive revision over time. This paper introduces 'revaluation' as the process by which previously derogated social objects are positively re-evaluated, drawing on 'stigma mutation' theory and assemblage theories to explain how stigma changes across lineages, groups, and intensities. A case study of psychedelic drug stigma shows that, while it remains embedded in illegal drug stigma, it is undergoing revaluation due to Western biomedicine's interest in psychedelics as therapeutics. Devaluation and revaluation can occur simultaneously through complex local and global connections.