In AppleTV’s The Me You Can’t See, Prince Harry highlighted the use of psychedelics in therapy. The idea and science behind using LSD, ayahuasca or other psychedelics is that those drugs can help break down psychological walls and help people have mental and emotional breakthroughs which unmedicated talk therapy might not be able to achieve. I believe it, especially if you’re taking those drugs within a therapeutic or spiritual setting – many people have spoken about how the drugs helped rewire their brain in a positive way, and helped them achieve some kind of breakthrough. Harry also wrote about his drug use in Spare, although the Netflix series kind of glossed over Harry’s recreational/therapeutic marijuana usage. Anyway, in his weekend talk with Dr. Gabor Mate, Harry got even more specific about drug use and the benefits of psychedelics.

The Duke of Sussex has said his use of some drugs “really” helped him mentally, as a trauma expert diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder (ADD). In his controversial memoir Spare, Harry admitted to regular drug-taking and describes how in 2015, while living in Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace, he smoked marijuana.

On Saturday, he spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, author of The Myth Of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing In A Toxic Culture, in a live interview, with topics including his use of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol.

Harry said “(Cocaine) didn’t do anything for me, it was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point. Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”

The duke also told of using psychedelics such as ayahuasca. He went on: “It was the cleaning of the windscreen, cleaning of the windshield, the removal of life’s filters just as much as on Instagram, these layers of filters. It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold on to for a period of time. I started doing it recreationally and then started to realise how good it was for me, I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and pains of the past.”

[From Yahoo]

To me, this reads as old news, considering Harry has been open about most of this since The Me You Can’t See and Spare. But of course, everything Harry does makes news, so following the talk with Dr. Mate, the British papers are launching into a 1980s-style anti-drug campaign centered on willfully misconstruing Harry’s words. They’re acting like Harry is going into elementary schools and passing out cocaine. He is not. He has always maintained that, specifically for psychedelics, he would like to see them used in controlled medical and therapeutic settings. As for marijuana… lol, after I read Spare, I was like “man, he must love it in California, with all of those pot dispensaries.”

Photos courtesy of WellChild, Travelyst, AppleTV.