The actress and activist, Boston's own, @elizadushku joins! Dushku talks mental health and Question 4, involving, plant-based psychedelics and her experience!

WEEI-FM / WEEI

Transcript

00:00Uh, the film that Courtney says is one of the top all five films of all time.

00:04What, uh, what is that one?

00:05Bring it on.

00:06Bring it on.

00:07Yep.

00:08Missy.

00:09Great character.

00:10The actress, and I would say activist, Eliza Dushku joins us right now.

00:13Good morning.

00:14Hello.

00:15Hi.

00:16Good morning, everyone.

00:17Are you shrooming right now?

00:18Thank you, Courtney.

00:19Are you, are you shrooming at this moment?

00:22No, not at this moment, but preparing to, uh, to get pretty fired up for, for election,

00:29which is a week away and, and helping people can join me in saying yes on four to allow

00:34others to have therapeutic access to psilocybin and its healing greatness.

00:39Yeah.

00:40So we had a lively discussion about this during the six o'clock hour, but question four would

00:45legalize and regulate some psychedelic drugs here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

00:52You would have to be over 21 to grow and to use them.

00:57And I was reading about your experience and when it came to, uh, what is a huge issue

01:04in this country now, Curtis, we talk about it a lot on the show.

01:07Those who are struggling when it comes to mental health, this was very, very helpful

01:11for you.

01:12Eliza.

01:13Yes, it absolutely was.

01:16And um, you know, this was about six years ago in my case and I was, um, I was in a really

01:21bad way.

01:22And, um, I had tried kind of the conventional methods of, um, you know, and recommendations

01:28from my doctors and therapists and teams from, uh, EMDR treatment is, is one widely known

01:35trauma treatment, um, different pharmaceuticals.

01:38I was in deep trauma therapy and someone actually, um, who had a background in addiction and

01:44recovery that I trusted recommended this.

01:47And I think that's one misconception people have is that psychedelics, uh, would not be

01:52efficient in, in addiction and recovery, but so much addiction is trauma informed.

01:57And so they're actually very effective for those juggling with substance abuse.

02:01And, uh, they were, yeah, they were transformational for me.

02:03Eliza, wouldn't this also be helpful when it comes to regulating something using shrooms

02:09as an example, whereas right now, if somebody wants to get it, they don't know how much

02:13they're consuming or where they're getting it from or where it's coming from.

02:16If it's legal and people are going to a shop to get it, you would know how much you're

02:20ingesting every time.

02:21Absolutely.

02:22I mean, the reality is that this, this bill is about harm reduction and it's about bringing

02:28these medicines kind of out from being in the shadows.

02:32You know, people are already using them.

02:34People are aware of how effective they are and the breakthrough capacity that they, that

02:38they have in, in medicine and improving mental health.

02:41And so now it's time for, for us as a state to say, we're not going to hide these anymore

02:46and keep people, um, as you said, if they're going to take these, we don't want them being

02:51afraid to contact their doctor or let their doctor know how they're working with them.

02:55Or if they were need to, you know, to, to seek help and from an emergency room, you

03:00don't want people afraid to go in cause they'll be arrested because they're trying to improve

03:03their mental health.

03:04It just, it doesn't make sense.

03:05And so absolutely this would bring them out of the shadows and look, there's the therapeutic

03:10regulated use piece that is, that we are so behind.

03:14And then some people have been caught up on the, on the decriminalization and the personal

03:18use piece.

03:20But the reality is you can't decriminalize these medicines without allowing people to

03:24grow their own personal amount.

03:26They cannot sell them.

03:27They cannot barter or trade them.

03:29That would still be federally illegal.

03:30But if you're going to say that they're decriminalized and we're going to start using them therapeutically,

03:36where are people going to get their, their substance if they can't grow their own?

03:40And that's what pushes people to the black market.

03:42If you don't have that piece where they can procure their, their own substances, then

03:47it actually is much more dangerous.

03:49The American Medical Association agrees that, that psychedelics should be decriminalized

03:53as a matter of public health.

03:55Eliza, as somebody who smokes weed and, and always hears from people who are like, Hey,

04:03it's a gateway drug.

04:05Like that's their only excuse to why they didn't want to legalize it initially.

04:10But luckily they did.

04:12Is that like the same thing that you get when you bring up mushrooms is that people always

04:18go to, it's a gateway drug and it's going to lead you to, you know, booting up heroin?

04:24Yeah.

04:25I hear you on that and that, you know, I remember hearing that often back in the marijuana time

04:30as well.

04:31But with this, it's, it's almost even worse than that.

04:34We're just stuck in so much stigma from the seventies and eighties, you know, people still

04:37classify psychedelics and they think they're the hippies and you know, old stories of people

04:42jumping out windows.

04:43And that's just, that's been debunked.

04:45The reality is if this is used in a safe and therapeutic way it is so, it is so safe and

04:51it is so therapeutic and so healing and they're not addictive.

04:54That's another you know, I don't know as much about marijuana, but some people I think find

05:00that they're, they're, they can be addicted to marijuana.

05:03People don't tend to do a mushroom session and then want to do it the next day and the

05:08next day.

05:09They're really powerful sessions.

05:10So there's, there's really no addiction associated with, with these medicines.

05:14And I think it's just about, you know, educating the public that these are molecules that have

05:18been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years for mental health and for healing.

05:24And it's time to kind of, it's time to educate people and that's why I'm, why I'm speaking

05:29out.

05:30It's time to be so helpful to us.

05:31And the reality is, as someone said at the beginning, we are in a mental health crisis

05:35and it's great that we've identified that as a, as a people, as a nation, but now we

05:39need to start doing something.

05:40There have been no real treatments in the last 20 to 25 years for people suffering with

05:45PTSD, with trauma, with treatment, resistance, depression, and anxiety.

05:49I'm now working as a clinical mental health intern with veterans and military service

05:54members.

05:55These people deserve more.

05:56You know, they put their lives on the line to go out and fight for this country and coming

06:00home shouldn't be the scariest, worst part.

06:02The suicide rates of veterans are on the low end, about 20 per day.

06:07And that to me is just, it's a disgrace that we wouldn't offer them the option of psychedelic

06:12assisted therapy.

06:13This is called the Massachusetts ballot for mental health options.

06:16So it's not for everybody, but let's give them the option.

06:20We owe them that much.

06:21Wouldn't you say?

06:22Yeah.

06:23Well, when, now I wanted to ask about getting clarity when you're having a session, did

06:27you ever go back and say, all right, I got clarity.

06:29This is a film that I would not have done.

06:32Were there any movies that you regret doing?

06:36I don't, I don't need mushrooms for that, my friend, let me tell you.

06:39All right.

06:40Don't say true lies because true lies is one of the all time great films, I think.

06:44No, I, but in all honesty, I will say in, in my first session, that was so powerful

06:49and helpful for me that I, that I described in this month's Boston magazine.

06:55There was, once I sort of went through the, the really deep healing phase of the treatment,

07:02I did have a very strong kind of message or understanding from sort of, they, they talk

07:08about, we all have this innate inner intelligence, this inner healer, this kind of higher self

07:13inside of us.

07:14And we get conditioned in our lives to kind of, you know, believe different things or,

07:19or adapt to the, what society, we think society wants from us.

07:23And when you take these psychedelic medicines, it's like that, that kind of blood like dissolves

07:28away and you get a very, many people get a very clear connection and insight.

07:33And in that place for me, it was very loud and clear that I was not going to continue

07:38doing what I was doing as an actor while I have, you know, gratitude and respect for

07:43all the people I was able to work with.

07:44It was very clear to me that my, my purpose from, from that point on was going to be to

07:48help other people with this, with this treatment, because we all live under a mask.

07:52We all live under, you know, we all have our, our, our baggage and the trauma and the,

07:56and the, and the things that we carry and this, this, this works.

08:01And so I knew it would be my, my mission to bring this to others.

08:04Eliza, very interesting.

08:05Thank you for sharing your perspective and the vote is Tuesday.

08:10Seems like the Commonwealth is split right down the middle.

08:12So we will see what happens when it comes to question four.

08:17Yeah, I would say it's actually, it's split, but it's also, I think there are many in favor

08:21and the reality is, you know, psilocybin and, and some other organic natural substances

08:26have been decriminalized in eight different cities in Massachusetts for the last two to

08:30three years in concluding Cambridge, Somerville, Salem, North Hampton.

08:35There's been no uptick in people driving around, you know, tripping on, on magic mushrooms

08:40and no uptick in emergency room visits.

08:43The reason I wanted to speak out, frankly, is I think there's a lot of fear mongering

08:46going on and I understand, you know, people, these are serious medications.

08:51In the same way you would, we would want to wrap them in safety, that we would want

08:54to, you know, lock up our, our Oxycontin and when we're, if we're taking those for medicine

09:00or for pain or lock up other potentially harmful substances.

09:03We want to see these wrapped in safety, but we have to bring them out.

09:06We can't, if this bill passes, this would go to the legislature for two years.

09:11There's a two year rulemaking process run by, that would be run by a commission of doctors

09:16best in Massachusetts, best in the world and a rulemaking process.

09:22And then they could change the bill.

09:23They could take certain medication, certain substances out.

09:27They could change the amount of space that people could have in their homes to grow them

09:31in.

09:32That came from the Colorado measure.

09:33There's, but don't kill the bill.

09:36Let's improve it and trust our legislature, trust, you know, Mark Healy and our Attorney

09:40General that they're going to make this, they're going to get this right.

09:43Massachusetts has been leading the way for 200 years.

09:47So we developed so many innovative breakthrough treatments here and it's time for this to

09:51be the next one.

09:52All right, Eliza.

09:54Got my vote.

09:55Great.

09:57I appreciate you guys.

09:58And hopefully I can, uh, we can find each other sometime and talk about, you know, bring

10:01it on and Kevin Smith.

10:04I say when it's legal that we, you know, we do a little micro dosing and then talk about

10:09it.

10:10Not the first time Greg said that to a girl.

10:13Yes.

10:14All right.

10:15All right.

10:16Eliza.

10:17Thank you guys for having me on.

10:18I got to run to class.

10:19Be well.

10:20All right.

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