> these substances by nature cannot be double-blind trialed because blinding is impossible
That's a bold claim. You can try multiple different substances, the test subjects know they ingest a psychedelic, but don't know which, which allows you to have a control group.
Clinical trials would face other issues, but not this one.
i think it would be super interesting to do a study where we compared the effects of moderate/high-dose psychedelics to some other substance that had comparable subjective effects. but (a) i don't think such a control substance actually exists
and (b) i strongly suspect that you'd see the same benefits to both groups - and then what conclusion do you draw from that?
That's a bold claim. You can try multiple different substances, the test subjects know they ingest a psychedelic, but don't know which, which allows you to have a control group.
Clinical trials would face other issues, but not this one.