In 1966, French media began portraying LSD as a dangerous new drug causing prolonged psychoses, suicides, and youth rebellion. At the time, LSD was still primarily a medication and a tool for studying the brain, with thousands of scientific articles demonstrating its safety and therapeutic benefits. These successes received no media coverage in France, so the country discovered the substance with alarm. The vocabulary of madness dominated press coverage, framing LSD within a conceptual framework of insanity. The government quickly classified LSD as a narcotic, ending ongoing medical research. This case study illustrates how moral panics can impact scientific production on psychoactive substances.
This introduction to the 9th issue of the journal Cygne noir, themed 'drugs and altered sense(s),' clarifies the theme and the editorial committee's approach. It opens exploratory avenues, addressing various drug uses in light of recent history. A brief press review for 2021-2022 testifies to current media enthusiasm for psychedelic research. In the Western and North American context, the ongoing decriminalization of psychedelics is examined in light of potential pitfalls and setbacks due to the capitalist economy. The final two sections offer original reflection on psychedelics' potential: starting from the idea of 'trouble in affordances,' semiotic normativity is questioned, then a shift from psychedelia to ecodelia is suggested to reframe drugs' emancipatory potential in the current political context.