5 Dangerous And Illegal Drugs That Doctors Once Prescribed As Miracle Cures

Published September 30, 2017
Updated September 24, 2018

Psychedelic Mushrooms

Magic Mushrooms

Yamaguchi Haruyoshi/Contributor/Getty Images

We often think of psychedelic mushrooms as a vehicle for a trippy Woodstock-style flashback, but prior to the free love era, psilocybin (the active ingredient) was actually researched as a treatment for various psychological ailments as well as a vessel to achieve a higher understanding of the world. 

Famed writer Aldous Huxley even used the drug for a “visionary experience,” writing that he believed being high was the way everyone should experience the world.

During World War II, psilocybin was researched as a truth telling serum, as well as a synthetic alternative to adrenaline, due to the two compounds’ structural similarities.


Next, read about the craziest ways people have smuggled drugs. Then, read about how Pervitin and other drugs fueled the Nazis’ rise. Finally, discover the horrors of Krokodil, which gives users reptillian scales, as well as flakka the zombie drug.

author
Katie Serena
author
A former staff writer at All That's Interesting, Katie Serena has also published work in Salon.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.
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Serena, Katie. "5 Dangerous And Illegal Drugs That Doctors Once Prescribed As Miracle Cures." AllThatsInteresting.com, September 30, 2017, https://allthatsinteresting.com/illegal-drugs-that-were-legitimate. Accessed February 22, 2025.