Psylocybin Legalization
Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research
A psilocybin therapy session at Johns Hopkins University.
It may seem impossible that a drug lauded by free-love-era hippies and adventurous druggies alike could be the key to curing depression and PTSD.
Yet, that’s just what experts believe psilocybin, the key ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” may be able to do — and now they might have the federal government on board.
For a decade or so, scientists in a specific sector of medical science have been researching the effects of psilocybin, among other psychedelic drugs, on patients who suffer from extreme depression and PTSD. British mental health treatment company Compass Pathways was even granted a “breakthrough therapy designation” by the FDA.
“It really does represent a significant development in the whole history of psychedelic research,” said UCLA psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor Charles Grob, who conducted trials of his own involving psilocybin throughout the mid-2000s.
Should the trials succeed, the FDA is set to approve the use of medically regulated psilocybin for patients for whom traditional anti-depressants are ineffective. Alongside the use of psilocybin would be “psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.”
According to scientists, while the psychedelic drug has often been associated with a hallucinogenic experience, the actual benefits are more subdued. Users equate the feeling with a long-term euphoric one, similar to the birth of a child or a triumph.
