When I first started trying psychedelics and mdma I thought of a few of my friends as “drug canaries,” that is, people who like the same drugs as me but do them a lot more often or in higher doses. Most of them are mostly fine, one lost his sanity and is in prison after committing a number of paranoia driven violent crimes, and another can barely speak in complete sentences and is trying to make a career in psychedelic therapy / coaching of some sort.

I still trip and roll occasionally / a few times a year when I’m in the right setting, but watching a few people spiral out like that has reinforced a certain level of caution about it. Maybe I would be fine, maybe I wouldn’t, but I know it’s not a dice roll i’m interested in taking.