Restrictions on Psilocybin ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Are Easing as Research Ramps Up

Mental health treatment is being offered by magic mushrooms. Studies have shown that using the mushrooms' main psychoactive compound, psilocybin, can help treat depression, smoking and alcohol addiction, and reduce anxiety in the end of life. The drug is being tested for conditions such as opiate dependence and post traumatic stress disorder.

Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the world to regulate legal therapeutic use of magic mushrooms when it decriminalized them in 2020. It is illegal and strictly controlled in most countries. There is a push to get the drug reclassified.

After a lot of research in the 1950s and 1960s, the drug was banned due to their embrace by the counterculture. The 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances classified the drug as a Schedule I substance, meaning it has a high potential for abuse. There were a lot of administrative and financial burdens that ended study for a long time. David Nutt is a neuroscience researcher at Imperial College London.

The current research resurgence has seen Nutt and others explore how the brain's connections are changed by the use of drugs. A study done this year showed that treatment with the drug led to changes in the network. The first approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for the substance could come in the final rounds of trials.

Several U.S. cities have taken measures to decriminalize magic mushrooms. The molecule and the mushrooms are still illegal, but the prosecution of people for their possession or use is discouraged.

Denver voters banned the use of city money to prosecute people for magic mushroom related offenses. In Oakland and Santa Cruz, Calif., the city council took similar actions. In November 2020 voters in Washington, D.C. passed a ballot measure that made natural drugs one of the lowest priorities for law enforcement. In Michigan, Massachusetts, California and Washington State, cities have followed suit.

As part of Oregon's legislation, the state health authority created a scientific advisory board to recommend regulations for psilocybin service centers. The centers will not claim to treat depression but will aim to improve general well-being.

"My worry is that people won't necessarily get that distinction and end up with horrible, treatment-resistant depression, expecting an expert to treat that condition."

The advisory board in Oregon is trying to figure out how best to screen for risk factors such as a family history of mental illness. The board's product subcommittee is chaired by Oregon State University mycologistJessie Uehling. We want to know that we are creating a safe environment. Gukasyan says that the centers will focus on natural preparations instead of synthetic ones.

Regardless of local decriminalization, U.S. researchers need to follow federal regulations. The World Health Organization needs to conduct a review of the relevant evidence to reclassify the drug. It's ridiculous that the WHO could say that the drug does not have medical value. Nutt says that it can work where other drugs can't.

Research and treatment can be done in some countries. The penalties for magic mushrooms are lower in Canada because they are classified as Schedule III. TheraPSil has a fast-track process for end-of-life therapy.

The Jamaican government never made magic mushrooms illegal. Most of these places don't have a lot of research going on, but there are thriving industries that aren't regulated. The Netherlands has a specific ban on the mushrooms, but it doesn't mention the underground mushrooms that eventually grow them. The loophole has paved the way for many retreats.

Drugs have been decriminalized in Portugal. The mushrooms are not banned in some countries because they don't contain the drug. Some people don't enforce their laws on magic mushrooms.

There is a clause in the U.N. treaty that allows countries to exempt traditional Indigenous uses of drugs. The governments of some South American countries have fought for the right to engage in related ceremonies with the Indigenous peoples. There is a religious organization in New Mexico that claims to be able to legally use magic mushrooms.

It's not a new idea that the drug helps with mental health conditions. The history of treatment is in a different format. We are trying to honor the knowledge system here in Oregon.

As interest in the drug increases, the public's perception of it is changing. It's exciting to be a mycologist at the moment. She says that other states will come up with variations on what we get right and what needs to change.