For years, the momentum has been building for the legalization of psilocybin, the psychoactive substance in “magic mushrooms.” As addictions professionals, academic researchers, neuroscientists, and psychiatric experts began to lend their voices to the growing chorus advocating for the safety and efficacy of psilocybin therapy to combat a host of ailments including depression, addiction, and PTSD, governments have finally begun to take notice. Rolling Stone magazine made a bold prediction in late 2018, prognosticating that psilocybin therapy could be legal in the United States by 2021. Let’s explore the reasons for their prediction, and determine whether it could come true at some point this year.
Why Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Is Going Mainstream
Organizations like MAPS have been promoting medical research into psychedelics for decades. Due to a combination of tireless advocacy, mounting scientific research, anecdotal evidence that microdosing can create profound benefits, a loss of trust in large pharmaceutical companies which pushed highly addictive opioid painkillers on an unsuspecting public, and the success of the movement to legalize cannabis use, the objections to psychedelic medicine are rapidly melting away. This shift has been a long time coming for the estimated 16 million Americans who suffer from clinical depression, a third of whom have proved resistant to treatment. Since studies at Johns Hopkins University have shown that 2 doses of psilocybin, in combination with psychotherapy, relieved depressive symptoms for a month. Half of all the participants also declared that following the treatment they were no longer “in the throes of major depression.”
In the wake of this and other evidence from studies in the United States and Europe, numerous municipalities across the US have moved to decriminalize psilocybin and other hallucinogenic and oneirogenic medicines. In November’s election, Oregon became the first American state to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, mental health experts are expressing profound concerns over the impacts of social isolation, exposure to the virus, and economic uncertainty on vulnerable populations. A Norwegian study from 2020 found that 28% of the nation’s healthcare workers met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. A study in China found that “about 50 percent of respondents reported symptoms of depression, 44 percent reported symptoms of anxiety and 34 percent reported insomnia.” In the wake of COVID, we will need effective methods of treating mental illness more desperately than ever before, a fact which is driving governments and pharmaceutical companies to finally commit to exploring the potential of psychedelic treatments.
What’s Happening Now?
As the new year dawned, Wired magazine declared “Psychedelic medicine will cross over into the mental health mainstream in 2021.” They point to the fact that regulators in the US and Europe have already eased restrictions on MDMA treatment for PTSD and psilocybin treatment for depression. Investors have already taken notice, and thrown heaps of money into promising new treatments. MAPS raised $30 million last year, most of which is earmarked to guide MDMA through phase-3 FDA trials in the US, while COMPASS Pathways “raised more than $115m to fund its efforts and bring to market a psilocybin treatment for depression” and filed an application to release an IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Many in the psychedelic community are wildly optimistic about the forthcoming results of a study which compares the safety and efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) with psilocybin based treatments. SSRIs have been hugely profitable for drug manufacturers, but their side-effects have increasingly come under scrutiny, as they can cause weight gain, numbness, the loss of sexual desire, and anhedonia. Many researchers and healthcare professionals are beginning to realize that they should no longer be the de facto treatment for depressive disorders.
As we move towards mainstreaming psychedelic treatments, authorities are working hard to ensure that they are conducted safely and responsibly. Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research is introducing an app called MyDelica which is designed to allow users to track the use and efficacy of psychedelic medicines, and to access reliable information on how to prepare minds, bodies, and environments for the optimal and safe use of these substances.
In Oregon local health regulators are preparing to create an advisory board of 15 or so experts to create “requirements, specifications, and guidelines for providing psilocybin services.” This is a pivotal step, as creating appropriate regulations governing the use of psychedelic medicines will be fundamental to fostering safe use and public acceptance. Oregon is looking to create a board composed of “Physicians, psychologists, public health experts, scientific researchers and representatives of state agencies such as OHA [Oregon Health Authority] policy councils or the state Department of Justice.”
The state is well aware of its responsibility in this historic moment. As the press release for the advisory board states, they are looking to develop “a long-term strategic plan for ensuring that psilocybin services will become and remain a safe, accessible and affordable therapeutic option.” It’s likely that Oregon will create the blueprint for legalization.
Looking Forward
All of the data we have accumulated thus far suggests that psilocybin is effective in mitigating the symptoms of depression, and Oregon isn’t the only jurisdiction taking positive steps to provide safe access to a promising medicine. The cities of Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Ann Arbor have already decriminalized the substance, and Washington D.C. passed a ballot initiative to decriminalize psychedelic and entheogenic medicines in the November elections. Meanwhile, Canada has legalized psilocybin therapy for terminally ill patients and their healthcare providers, while in Europe the Netherlands has been the first jurisdiction to offer psilocybin therapy to patients suffering from depression.
At Tabula Rasa Retreat, we feel fortunate to be located in Portugal, a nation which has decriminalized psychedelic and oneirogenic medicines. We have seen firsthand the ability of ibogaine therapy to treat a host of issues related to mental health and addiction. The potential of psilocybin therapy to alleviate the symptoms of depression has moved us to partner with Luz Eterna to begin offering ceremonies and retreats centered around the healing power of psilocybin, and we are hugely optimistic about the mainstreaming of therapy that utilizes psychoactive plant medicines and feel that 2021 might be the year of the mushroom. If you’re interested in exploring the potential of psilocybin to improve your mental health, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!
For further information visit www.tabularasaretreat.com or call PT +351 965 751 649 UK +44 7961 355 530