Magic mushrooms are transforming from an illegal recreational drug to a promising mental health treatment. Numerous studies have reported positive results using psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound in mushrooms, to treat depression, smoking, alcoholism, and to reduce anxiety in terminally ill patients. Ongoing and planned studies are testing the drug for conditions including opioid addiction, PTSD, and anorexia nervosa.
This growing scientific interest and social acceptance has contributed to law reforms in cities across the United States. do so. For now, psilocybin remains illegal and tightly controlled at the national level in most countries, slowing research. intended to lower the
After a storm of research in the 1950s and 1960s, psilocybin and all other psychedelics were suddenly banned. This is partly due to its acceptance into the counterculture. Pursuant to the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, psilocybin was classified as a Schedule I substance in the United States. It is defined as “currently unapproved for medical use and with high potential for abuse.” Psilocybin production is limited and numerous administrative and financial burdens have effectively ended decades of research. “This is the worst form of research censorship in history,” says David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London.
Despite these legal hurdles, a resurgence of current research has Nutt and others investigating how psilocybin alters connectivity patterns in the brain. Reduce connections within the regular network and increase links between areas with less connections. A study just this year showed that treatments containing psilocybin lead to lasting network changes that appear to correlate with reduced symptoms of depression. has begun final trials for the use of , which may lead to the first approval of this substance by the US Food and Drug Administration.
As news of psilocybin’s promise spreads, several US cities have passed measures to decriminalize magic mushrooms. This is not the same as legalization. While the molecules and mushrooms themselves are still illegal, prosecuting people for their possession or use will become a low priority and discouraged.
In 2019, Denver voters passed a ballot measure banning the use of city money to prosecute people for magic mushroom-related crimes. City councils soon took similar steps in Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. In November 2020, voters in Washington, D.C., passed a ballot measure making natural psychedelics one of her top priorities for law enforcement. Cities and counties in Michigan, Massachusetts, California, and Washington followed.
As part of Oregon law, state health officials created a scientific advisory board to recommend regulations for psilocybin service centers. This includes specifying mushroom seeds and preparations for use, as well as production standards to be followed. These centers, which can apply for licenses from next January, aim to improve general health rather than claim to treat depression.
“My concern is that people don’t always get that distinction…and develop dreaded treatment-resistant depression, hoping for a professional to treat the condition.” , says Natalie Gukasyan, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University who led the recent psilocybin trial. .
An Oregon Advisory Board determines how best to train facilitators and screen clients for risk factors such as family history of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. , consumer safety revolves around,” says Oregon State University mycologist Jesse Ehring, who chairs the board’s product subcommittee. “We want to know that we’re avoiding all potential risks and creating the safest environment for people.” focus on, Gukasyan said.
Regardless of local decriminalization, US researchers must comply with Federal Schedule I regulations. The International Treatment Psilocybin Rescheduling Initiative, a coalition of research and advocacy groups, aims to force the World Health Organization to conduct a review of evidence related to the drug’s reclassification. It might work where other drugs haven’t worked,” says Nutt.
Research and treatment are already facilitated by various laws in some countries. Canada classifies magic mushrooms as Schedule III, so penalties are lower and exceptions are allowed for certain studies and trials. A Canadian charity called TheraPsil has an expedited process for end-of-life psilocybin therapy.
The psilocybin molecule is often illegal, but some countries, such as Jamaica, have not outlawed magic mushrooms. Research is limited in most of these locations, but many have a thriving medically unregulated “psychedelic retreat” industry. Although the Netherlands specifically bans mushrooms, its laws make no reference to the psilocybin-containing subterranean masses that eventually cause them to sprout, better known as truffles. have paved the way for therapeutic retreats, but few organized studies.
Portugal famously decriminalized all drugs. Some countries have banned mushrooms because spores do not contain psilocybin, but spores are not. Some people don’t apply the law to magic mushrooms.
The 1971 United Nations Convention has provisions that allow countries to exempt traditional indigenous uses of psychedelic plants. Indigenous peoples of several countries in South America have used psychedelics for centuries and have fought governments for their right to participate in related ceremonies. There is a Mystical Sacrament, which claims that its members can legally use magic mushrooms in certain situations.
“This idea that psilocybin can help with mental health conditions is not new. Effective treatments are thousands of years old. It’s just a different form of knowledge,” Uehling says. “We are working hard here in Oregon to respect that knowledge system.”
Public perception of psilocybin is changing, and this trend looks set to accelerate as growing interest produces more evidence. increase. Many are waiting to see what happens in Oregon, she added.
