“If your patients aren’t telling you about this stuff that they’re doing because they don’t think you know enough about it, you wouldn’t be able to handle it or you couldn’t relate to it, that’s a problem.”
As interest in psychedelics grows, driven in part by promising clinical trials for mental health treatment, many individuals are exploring these substances outside of clinical and legal frameworks. Unlike cannabis, this rise in personal use has occurred largely without clear regulatory guardrails or safety education.
In this episode, Daniel Kruger, PhD, discusses his research examining harm reduction recommendations developed directly from the psychedelic community. Drawing on lived experience, this work offers practical guidance for inexperienced users. Kruger highlights how social workers are increasingly likely to encounter these issues in practice and reflects on the professional and ethical implications for social work, emphasizing why harm reduction perspectives are essential as psychedelics become more common in mental health and substance use conversations.
This episode will be of particular interest to social work educators, practitioners and researchers seeking to better understand harm reduction approaches, emerging substance use trends and the role of social work in ethically engaging with these developments.
Daniel Kruger, PhD, earned his doctorate in applied social psychology from Loyola University Chicago and completed an NIMH postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. His work spans basic and applied research, with a strong emphasis on community-based collaboration. In his psychedelic research, Kruger centers the priorities and knowledge of the psychedelic community, with funding support from the NIH, CDC, state health departments and foundations.
Show Notes
Cite this podcast – Sobota, P. (Host). (2026, February 17). Psychedelics: Harm Reduction for Inexperienced Users (No. 345) [Audio podcast episode]. In inSocialWork. University at Buffalo School of Social Work.
Kruger, D.J., Mersereau, G., Sullivan, A., Barron, J., Herberholz, M., Pouyan, N., Aday, J.S., & Boehnke, K. F. (2025). Best practices for first psychedelic experiences: Harm reduction advice from the psychedelic community. Harm Reduction Journal, 22, 191.
