"It's a repeat of what happened in the 1950's and 60's. New psychedelic drugs are discovered -> some people (e.g. Leary) claim it's a miracle cure for what ails you -> gets used extensively -> people have bad reaction -> gov't makes it illegal."

There are some crucial aspects of what happened that are missing from your account.

1 - Not only did some people have bad reactions, but the media and politicians sensationalized the hell out those bad reactions, we're not seeing that now and the media attention has been extraordinarily positive.. so far. It could, of course, change on a dime if/when there's some juicy scandal that the media can whip people up in to a frenzy over.

2 - Psychedelics and cannabis were tied strongly in to the counterculture (including that new demonic music, Rock and Roll) of the time, which was a frightening bogeyman to politicians and mainstream culture.

Mainstream culture has pretty much absorbed much of that counterculture since then. Rock and Roll is pretty blase, hippies are seen as quaint anachronisms, psychedelic/surreal art is commonplace and won't raise an eyebrow any longer. People have bigger things to worry about.

3 - Psychedelics and cannabis were tied strongly to the anti-war movement and various political issues that were threatening the status quo. There's hardly any anti-war movement to speak of any longer, and psychedelic users don't seem to be threatening the status quo except for wanting to get their drugs of choice legalized, and maybe "save the planet" by taking better care of the environment. It's hard to get people wound up in opposition to that any longer.

Now, this could all change as psychedelics do have the potential to inspire art and music and maybe create a new counterculture, and to also inspire radical political action and seeking out of alternatives to the status quo, and I hope that does happen in some positive, constructive manner. And there could be a huge backlash against that once again, but there's not even a hint of it yet.

Something else that's going on now is that there's a lot more education about safe use of psychedelics, the therapeutic/medical model and the shamanic/sacred approach seem to be taking off on a scale that wasn't there in the 50's and 60's. Ayahuasca tourism is huge, and MDMA-assisted and Psilocybin-assisted therapies are ramping up (with veterans of all people!)

Talking about and getting help for mental health issues is also something that's much more widely accepted than it was in the 50's and 60's, when these things were pretty taboo. Psychedelic support and integration groups are also springing up all over the place. So people are much more likely to seek out help when they need it. That will hopefully have a positive effect to stem the flow of "acid casualties" this time around.

There's also a mental health crisis, where traditional mental health treatments are widely recognized as having failed, and people are looking for alternatives that work. This is somewhat similar to the 60's and 70's, when alternative treatments were also fashionable, but it seems such alternatives are much more acceptable today.

In addition to this, a lot of the people who were part of the youth culture and counterculture in the 60's are in positions of power now, and they're not as afraid of these substances as their parents were.

We're definitely living in interesting times, and right now the future looks bright, though of course that could change if people continue to use these substances irresponsibly and the media manages to turn reports of bad experiences in to a circus.