Introduction

Most American's image of psychedelic drugs stems from the hippie counterculture, where these relatively unknown drugs became a new phenomenon that encouraged the new generation to rebel.  These drugs, especially LSD, but including psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, mescaline, and more, became notorious for their use by hippies, who disregarded conventional wisdom and adopted new cultural practices and ideologies.  But these substances' origins were much different, coming from the labs of pharmaceutical companies, where researchers hoped to use them medicinally, and from ceremonial and religious use in ancient cultures across the globe.  After the 60's, these drugs were quickly outlawed in the U.S., stopping almost all legitimate research aimed at developing psychedelics into usable treatments for a variety of ailments.  However, there has been a small modern resurgence in research, with promising results.  Despite the bad image psychedelic drugs have been given, they are important chemical tools that assist in therapy for alcoholism, drug addiction, and mental illnesses.