Poll: 61% of U.S. voters favor legalizing psychedelics for therapeutic purposes

A majority - 61% - of registered voters in the United States are in favor of legalizing psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, survey inaugural University of California at Berkeley conference on psychedelics. 56% of those surveyed were in favor of obtaining authorization for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prescription psychedelics.

An overwhelming majority of respondents (78%) are in favor of allowing researchers to study psychedelic substances more easily, Almost half (49%) were in favor of abolishing criminal penalties for personal use and possession, and 44% were in favor of allowing the use of psychedelics for spiritual and religious purposes.

Among the 61% of people in favour of authorizing the’therapeutic use of psychedelic substances, 63% said psychedelics were not «something for people like me», 56% said psychedelics were not «something I'm interested in», and 47% said psychedelics were not «a good thing for society».

Of those who agreed with the decriminalization of substances, 57% said psychedelics were not for them, 39% were not interested in learning more, and 41% said psychedelics were «not good for society».

Just over half of those surveyed (51%) said they had a «first-degree» connection with psychedelic drug use - either themselves, or someone close to them had used a psychedelic drug.

«Respondents with first-degree knowledge and connection to psychedelics are also more likely to support policy reforms, have a positive perception of psychedelics and trust almost all sources of information about psychedelics (with the exception of law enforcement). With the exception of research expansion, no psychedelic policy reform is overwhelmingly supported by voters who have no first-degree connection to use,» according to the study.

The poll found that 47% of voters had recently heard of psychedelics, with 48% of them saying they had heard of psychedelics being used to treat mental health.

Among those surveyed, liberal voters were overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing therapeutic access to psychedelics (80%), compared with 66% for moderates and 45% for conservatives.

The majority of voters surveyed accept that psychedelic therapy should be used to treat people with terminal illnesses (80%), veterans (69%) and people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety (67%) .

Fewer accept the free access to psychedelic therapy for anyone over the age of 21 (44%) or the use of psychedelic therapy to treat drug addiction (45%).