Why It Is The Way It Is

Psychedelic drugs have been tightly restricted since 1970, when Congress created one law that regulated all drugs, the Controlled Substances Act.  This law set boundaries for drugs based on their medical merit, abuse potential, and safety of use, as decide by Congress.  Psychedelics were put in Schedule 1, the most restrictive category, which was described as substances with no accepted medical use, high abuse potential, and no safety standards.  This category makes research very difficult to be approved, so the scientific community lost the opportunity to learn more about their effects.

So why are psychedelic drugs grouped as Schedule 1 controlled substances, along with heroin, and above meth (which is Schedule 2)?  When the Controlled Substance Act was written, LSD and the hippie lifestyle were viewed as the biggest danger to America, and represented the largest threat to the politicians currently in power, who had approved the Vietnam War and the draft, and were ignoring civil rights issues.  So despite evidence that LSD was not dangerous and a plethora of research touting its medical benefits, it got banned along with all of its cousins, like psilocybin and mescaline.