Minorities' Diminished Psychedelic Returns: Income and Educations Impact on Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians

Abstract

Growing evidence suggests that the race and ethnic minority population may experience fewer protective effects of psychedelics on mental health. The minority diminished psychedelic returns theory proposes that racism, manifested in socioeconomic inequality, could partially account for the smaller health gains observed. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether socioeconomic inequality reduces the impact of psychedelics on health outcomes for minority populations. Additionally, despite having higher socioeconomic status, it remains unclear whether psychedelic use among minorities is associated with the same level of health benefits as observed in non-Hispanic whites. This study utilizes data from the National Survey of Drug Use (N = 2008 to 2019), which involved 458,372 participants aged 18 and above. The objective is to examine the impact of various psychedelics (MDMA, psilocybin, DMT, ayahuasca, peyote/mescaline, and LSD), as well as lifetime classic psychedelics use (LCPU), on psychological distress in the past month, taking into account socioeconomic factors (education level and family income) and race/ethnic differences (White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian). The analysis employed a series of nested ordinary least-square regression models using Stata 18. The results indicate that, after controlling for socioeconomic status, there is no association between Black and Hispanic psychedelic use and distress. However, white psychedelic use remains associated with lower levels of distress. Additionally, despite having higher levels of education and income, psychedelic use among minority groups does not appear to be linked to reduced stress. In fact, for Asians with higher education and income, certain psychedelic use is associated with increased distress.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Inequality; Mental health; Psychedelic; Race.