Drunk on the Past, High on the Future.

How Alcohol Lost Its Grip on the Young

What might psychedelics help with? Over the years, particularly in Victoria where I live, a renewed enthusiasm for psychedelics has pushed researchers to answer that very question. The surge in interest isn’t just about recent legislation changes, it reflects a broader generational shift in attitudes toward previously illicit substances. Younger people, now coming of age and seeking to alter their consciousness in social and therapeutic settings, are less weighed down by the paranoia of the War on Drugs that shaped older generations. What was once framed as dangerous and reckless is now being re-examined with scientific curiosity, by a generation of more health literature, revealing therapeutic potential that was buried under decades of prohibition. Many now seek to undo this historical distortion — some in pursuit of genuine medical breakthroughs, others for a good time, and, of course, some with the hope of striking it rich on the next big pharmaceutical frontier.

The Big Earners of Psychedelic Research

At Swinburne university, where I just finished studying, it seemed that every lecturer across neuropharmacology, neurological monitoring, psychology and neuroscience, had at least some first hand contact with psychedelics in their research. Susan Rossell is part of the reason why. Rossell, a cognitive neuropsychologist at Swinburne who also holds a position at St. Vincent’s health, has a particular knack…