Is Britain on its Way to Legalizing Magic Mushrooms?

Boris Johnson is considering legalizing the drug psilocybin, which is the drug found in what most people know as “magic mushrooms.”

This psychedelic drug has great potential in the treatment of mental health conditions including depression, trauma, and addiction. Psilocybin, ecstasy, and LSD are in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. This also means the Home Office needs a license to use it in scientific research. If it was to be moved to Schedule 2 it would be in the same category as medical cannabis. 

Tory MP Crispin Blunt was the one to ask the Prime Minister to comment on this, believing that this can boost the biosciences industry in the UK. 

If it were moved to Schedule 2, new and further research into its benefits in mental health conditions can be discovered. Early research shows positive results in people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 

Guy Murray is a military veteran who watched his close friend get shot and killed. He served in Afghanistan with the 4th Battalion Rifles. He watched through binoculars as he died and could not do anything about it. "I was watching the battle unfold and I wasn't a part of it, and that is really what trauma is when you can't do anything about being in a situation you can't fight, you can't help, you just watch something, you're completely helpless,” Murray says. His dad went to a funeral on his behalf while he was still in Afghanistan. Suffering from flashbacks, depression, and multiple suicide attempts he left the military in 2014.  

Murray was diagnosed with PTSD in 2017. He says that in addition to talking therapy and education, psilocybin helped him overcome PTSD. A small study has found that psilocybin is good at reducing depression symptoms. This is promising but since this is an early study, more research has to be done.

Alamy | New Scientist

The antidepressant Prozac hit the market about 30 years ago, leading to several more drugs for depression and anxiety being released all being on the same theme. Although they have helped many, there are usually many side-effects or even do not work for some people.

Therefore, new treatments taking a different approach are needed. In the study by Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, they compared participants taking antidepressants against psilocybin, and found that psilocybin worked just as well as the conventional antidepressants at reducing depressive symptoms. 

However, on other measures, they found that psilocybin performed better than the antidepressant escitalopram. Measures of work, social functioning, and mental well-being are some of them. Rather than muting the symptoms that antidepressants do, psilocybin seems to get more to the root of the problems.

Researchers predict that psychedelics affect the stress system of the brain and lessen these responses. This does not mean that they help people feel good and lessening these emotions could be both positive and negative. Psilocybin also seems to have fewer side effects than antidepressants present with such as sexual dysfunction and drowsiness. 

Although more studies have to be done, this shows good promise for psychedelics being an alternative treatment for substance misuse, anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions.