In the article, and many of the comments here, the thrust is that illegality is primarily a political matter. I certainly can't argue that isn't a factor, but I can say it's not the only salient issue.<p>All drugs have multiple effects, most of which receive little or no study. Particular effects may be useful, and the others we call "side-effects". The problem with drugs is determining these characteristics, a notably difficult task since individual responses vary widely. BTW, the US FDA considers AE occurrence of >=1% to be "frequent", that is, a major/signficant side-effect of the drug.<p>Systematic study is extremely laborious. That's the reason therapeutic drugs require such expensive and time-consuming development. Potential severe but rare effects may not come to the fore until millions of people are exposed to the drug. If it comes to light that >=1/10^6 recipients have a fatal response, that may represent too big a risk to leave the drug on the market.<p>Hallucinogenic drugs are <i>not</i> risk free. Spend a few days in the ED where such drugs are being widely used and there will be multiple instances of panic, dissociative responses and psychosis. This is something I've personally observed. Yes, it's anecdotal, but large, well-structured, placebo-controlled trials have not yet been done.<p>In the absence of such studies, is it ethical to assert the use of any drug is "safe"? Even if serious adverse effects are "infrequent" (<1%), encouraging people to use a drug (particularly for non-essential purposes) could conceivably result in thousands of people trying it, and consequently a substantial number suffering harm. Such advocacy would almost certainly not meet standards of responsible behavior.