Tag: psilocybin

Field trip: inside America’s first magic mushroom school

At a forest facility in Oregon, the first US state to allow supervised use of the drug, students work toward becoming licensed trip facilitator.

  • Inside a spacious and light-filled retreat in the forest outside Portland, 30 students sat gazing into each other’s eyes.

A heavy silence filled the room, save for the occasional creaking chair. A soft voice urged the group to envision the pain and joy their fellow students had experienced during their lives, to view them as a friend, a child, a teacher. Some broke into grins, others teared up.

“We never get the opportunity to just look at somebody,” the instructor said.

The intense exercise was a fitting start to the day for students preparing for unconventional careers as facilitators in Oregon’s groundbreaking new psilocybin program.

The state is the first in the US to allow supervised use of the psychedelic for adults 21 and older. In a few months, the students, who include midwives, educators and retirees, could support people through a magic mushroom experience at one of Oregon’s 19 service centers.

But first, they’ll need to complete a program like the one taking place at InnerTrek – the first government-recognized licensed and operating training program in the world, according to staff. After they complete the training, they can go on to apply for their licenses with the state.

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I spent over £100,000 on therapy… but it was taking magic mushrooms that helped me conquer my OCD

On the surface, Pandora Morris, 35, has everything. She’s pretty, blonde, well-connected and has a posh London address – the type of woman you might see on the pages of society magazine Tatler.

But there is a sadness about her cornflower blue eyes which reflect a less golden story. Pandora, a lawyer by profession and scion of a large London banking dynasty, has spent decades battling obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which developed into a severe exercise addiction and eating disorder in her early teens.

It has been more than three years since her last ‘relapse’, and though wary of describing herself as ‘cured’, Pandora is now in a very different place to her condition before lockdown, when her heart rate fell to 31 and doctors told her that if she didn’t stop exercising eight hours a day and eat more than 700 calories, she would probably die.

When we meet, Pandora has just come from the studio where she is recording the second series of Hurt To Healing, the podcast she launched in October 2022, in which she interviews experts and those who have struggled with mental health issues.

Pandora certainly knows her subject. Her desperate parents spent the price of a small house on treatments — none of which, including seven months in an eating disorder clinic in South Africa, seemed to work long term.

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DEA Confirms That Psychedelic Mushroom Spores Are Federally Legal Prior To Germination

A top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has affirmed that spores that produce so-called magic mushrooms are not, on their own, federally prohibited.

DEA’s Drug & Chemical Evaluation Section Chief Terrence Boos was asked about the legal status of the spores in a letter from attorney Michael McGuire in November, and he sent a response on Tuesday that clarified the agency’s position.

“If the mushroom spores (or any other material) do not contain psilocybin or psilocin (or any other controlled substance or listed chemical), the material is considered not controlled” under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Boos wrote.

“However, if at any time the material contains a controlled substance such as psilocybin or psilocin (for example, upon germination), the material would be considered a controlled substance under the CSA,” he said, as Kight On Cannabis first reported.

This isn’t especially revelatory, as its long been understood that the CSA doesn’t explicitly ban spores that can be used to produce so-called “magic mushrooms.” Rather, it lists the key psychoactive ingredients in psychedelic mushrooms, psilocybin and psilocyn, as Schedule I controlled substances.

Because the spores themselves don’t contain those specific compounds, they are uncontrolled under the CSA.

However, it should be noted that while the spores are technically considered federally legal—as long as someone doesn’t use them to produce mushrooms that contain psilocybin or psilocin—states such as California, Georgia and Idaho do prohibit the spores themselves.

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DEA Calls For Even More THC, Psilocybin And DMT To Be Produced For Research In 2024

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is now calling for the production of even more THC, psilocybin and DMT for research purposes than it initially proposed for 2024—raising its quotas for those drugs while maintaining already high production goals for marijuana and other psychedelics.

In a notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, DEA said it received comments from registered manufacturers requesting increases to previously proposed 2024 quotas for the Schedule I substances in order to “meet medical and scientific needs,” and it agreed to do so in the new final order.

Accordingly, the agency nearly doubled the quotas for delta-9 THC and all other tetrahydrocannabinol, increasing them to 1,523,040 grams and 1,166,130 grams, respectively.

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Could magic mushrooms replace oxycodone?  Ingredient found in psychedelic helps treat chronic pain by reshaping the brain, study suggests

An injection of psilocybin, the key ingredient in so-called ‘magic mushrooms,’ could offer lasting relief from chronic pain, according to new research.

A team of scientists at the University of Michigan found that rats given the psychedelic drug were significantly less sensitive to pain for weeks compared to animals who did not receive it. 

These results suggest that the drug is altering pathways in the brain, the study authors wrote.

Scientists suspect many chronic pain conditions are the result of changes to the brain and spinal cord, not just the body part that’s in pain. 

Psilocybin may modify these pathways rather than just treating the symptoms of pain.

In the new study, rats were given a small injection of formaldehyde in their foot to simulate chronic pain. 

Injections like this can lead to a month or more of hypersensitivity, even in the feet that haven’t been injected.

So, while this pain isn’t the same as a person with a back injury or other chronic pain experiences, it is one way for scientists to study long-lasting pain.

The lab animals were then given either a low-dose injection of psilocybin, a high-dose injection, or an injection of harmless salt water – a placebo to ensure the drug was responsible for the observed effects. 

The low-dose group received 1mg per kilogram of body weight, the equivalent of a microdose, while the high-dose group received 10mg per kilogram, a hallucinogenic dose. 

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New York Bill Would Create Psilocybin Therapy Pilot Program For 10,000 Military Veterans And First Responders

A New York lawmaker has introduced a bill that would create a pilot program to provide psilocybin therapy to 10,000 people, focusing on military veterans and first responders, while the legislature also considers broader psychedelics reform.

Assemblymember Pat Burke (D), who has championed various psychedelics measures over recent sessions, filed the therapeutic psilocybin pilot program legislation on Wednesday.

It would create the program under the state Department of Health, which would be required to provide funding to cover the therapy and develop training guidelines for professional facilitators. It would need to issue a report on findings and policy recommendations to the governor and legislature every two years after enactment.

A total of 10,000 patients could participate, including veterans and their families, first responders and people who suffer from cluster headaches. They would need to reside in the western region of New York.

The pilot program would end if psilocybin is approved for medical use by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“Psilocybin therapy offers serious potential benefits to assist with mental health, but it suffers from a lack of substantial medical testing,” a memo attached to the measure says. “This bill would alleviate that problem by establishing a pilot program to test psilocybin therapy’s effectiveness on mental health.”

“This pilot program would help record the effects of this treatment on their conditions in order to better understand the effects of this new therapy which promises substantial benefits,” it says.

Under the legislation, the health department would be able to enter into agreements with experts, non-profit organizations, universities or other institutions “for the performance of an evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness” of the program.

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Missouri GOP Lawmakers File Bills To Legalize Psilocybin Therapy And Fund Clinical Trials For 2024 Session

Missouri Republican lawmakers have pre-filed a pair of bills to legalize the medical use of psilocybin and require clinical trials exploring the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic.

Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder (R) and Rep. Aaron McMullen (R) introduced similar versions of the legislation for the 2024 session, setting the stage for further consideration of psychedelics reform in the Show-Me State.

Under both proposals, adults 21 or older who are diagnosed with a qualifying condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or substance misuse disorder could legally access laboratory-tested psilocybin. They also would need to be enrolled, or sought enrollment, in a Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) clinical trial involving the psychedelic.

The Senate version mirrors a separate House bill that advanced to the floor this year but was not ultimately enacted.

There are also numerous requirements for patients to provide DHSS with information about their diagnosis, the person who would be administering psilocybin and other details on the place and time of the treatment sessions.

Psilocybin could only be administered over a maximum of a one-year period, with the amount of the psychedelic used in that treatment capped at 150 milligrams, though qualifying patients could be also approved to continue for subsequent one-year periods.

Regulators, physicians and state agency officials would all be protected from legal consequences related to activity made lawful under the legislation.

Also, the legislation calls for DHSS to provide $2 million in grants to support “research on the use and efficacy of psilocybin.”

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LSD And Psilocybin Could Be Powerful Treatments For Pain—Without Opioids’ Dwindling Effects Over Time, Study Says

LSD and psilocybin could offer promising therapeutic potential for the treatment of chronic pain “on a mechanistic and experiential level,” according to a newly published literature review that highlights scientific findings happening as part of the “psychedelic renaissance”—a recent thawing of stigma and opposition into psychedelics research after decades of prohibition.

What’s more, authors note, the pain-relieving effects of LSD and psilocybin seem to increase with repeated treatment, unlike opioids, which display “decreased therapeutic effect” over time.

The narrative review, published last month in the South African Medical Journal, charts both the history of the two substances as well as scientists’ emerging understanding of their methods of action. It notes that the drugs seem not just to reduce pain but also better manage the experience of pain.

“Recent neuroimaging studies combined with small sample interventions with classic psychedelic agents,” authors wrote, “may point towards a possible means of improving the treatment of chronic pain on a mechanistic and experiential level.”

Classic psychedelics, the literature review explains, are those that bind to the central nervous system’s 5-HT2A receptors. They include both LSD and psilocybin.

The way psilocybin binds to receptors in the central nervous system “has similar effects to LSD on cognition, emotional processing, self-awareness and the perception of pain,” says the literature review, “which underpins its potential therapeutic benefit in treating people suffering with pain. Numerous small trials of LSD and psilocybin for chronic pain have already shown a good safety profile, with minimal physical dependence, withdrawal syndrome, or compulsive drug seeking compared with other analgesic agents.”

While the two drugs are part of the same family of alkaloids, their history is, of course, much different. The review describes explains that LSD was first synthesized in 1938, meaning humans have used it for less than a century. Psilocybin’s use stretches back thousands of years. In the modern U.S., psilocybin use was popularized in the late 1950s, while LSD grew to prominence in the ’60s and ’70s.

While there have been no reports of direct mortality from either substance and no withdrawal following chronic use, the study says, “the use of psilocybin in clinical research ended at the same time as LSD research as the Controlled Substances Act was enforced.”

Associations with counterculture and anti-government sentiment meant LSD and psilocybin research was abandoned, authors wrote. “From 1977 until the early 2000s, no more LSD research was published, despite overwhelming evidence pointing towards therapeutic benefit.”

Prior research had indicated LSD might be useful in treating depression, pain, and physical suffering in cancer patients and others. Among seven patients with phantom limb pain, participants treated with LSD reduced their analgesic requirements, and two patients’ pain was resolved.

During what the review refers to as the modern “psychedelic renaissance” or “the new wave of psychedelic research,” studies have found that psilocybin or LSD may help reduce cluster headaches, end-of-life depression in cancer patients and chronic pain.

In a pain study, a small sample of patients who self-medicate with the psychedelics “revealed a decrease in the experience of pain during the psychedelic session and for up to 5 days after treatment, before their pain returned to baseline.”

“The most exciting revelation from these interviews relates to the lasting psychological and emotional effect the psychedelics had on those interviewed,” the review says. “They describe increased resilience, body-self-awareness and psychological flexibility and psychological flexibility, which led to feelings of acceptance, agency and hope.”

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House And Senate Reach Deal To Require Psychedelics Clinical Trials For Active Duty Military Service Members Under Defense Bill

Bipartisan and bicameral congressional lawmakers have reached an agreement on a large-scale defense bill that contains a House GOP-led section to fund studies into the therapeutic use of psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA for military service members.

Following negotiations, lawmakers released the conference report for the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Wednesday evening, maintaining psychedelics research provisions championed by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) that were attached to the House version over the summer. The report notes, however, that the House negotiators receded on a separate section to create a medical cannabis pilot program for veterans.

The psychedelics provisions that have been adopted would require the Department of Defense (DOD) to establish a process by which service members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injury could participate in clinical trials involving psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT. The list of covered psychedelics was also expanded to broadly include “qualified plant-based alternative therapies.”

DOD would need to facilitate that process within 180 days of enactment. It could partner with eligible federal or state government agencies, as well as academic institutions to carry out the clinical trials, with $10 million in funding.

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Psilocybin’s ‘Efficacy And Safety’ For Bipolar II Depression Demonstrated By American Medical Association Study

Results of a new clinical trial published by the American Medical Association “suggest efficacy and safety” of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of bipolar II disorder, a mental health condition often associated with debilitating and difficult-to-treat depressive episodes.

“The 15 participants in this trial had well-documented treatment-resistant BDII depression of marked severity and a lengthy duration of the current depressive episode,” authors wrote. After seven psychotherapy sessions, one involving a single dose of psilocybin, the paper says, study subjects “displayed strong and persistent antidepressant effects, with no signal of worsening mood instability or increased suicidality.”

In the nonrandomized controlled study, which was conducted at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, “12 patients met both response and remission criteria” at the end of a 12-week study period, the trial found, meaning that measures of the diagnosis had dropped by more than half and fell below a minimum threshold.

“The findings in this open-label nonrandomized controlled trial suggest efficacy and safety of psilocybin with psychotherapy in BDII depression.”

Patients’ self-reported quality of life scores “demonstrated similar improvements,” the study, which was funded by the biotechnology company COMPASS Pathways that develops psychedelic treatments, found. In terms of safety, metrics of suicidal ideation and mania “did not change significantly at posttreatment compared to baseline.”

The nine-author study, published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, involved administering a single, 25-milligram dose of psilocybin. Patients with bipolar II disorder (BDII) met with therapists seven times—during three pre-treatment sessions, once during an “8-hour dosing day” and at three post-treatment integration sessions.

“In this study, most participants remitted rapidly (ie, within 1 week of dosing), and in most participants, remission persisted for the 12-week study duration,” the report says. “The 3 participants who restarted medication due to lack of benefit or relapse following improvement generally had poorer response throughout the trial.”

“In a sample of patients with treatment-resistant cyclical mood disorder, achieving persistent remission over a 3-month period is notable, especially given the single dosing of psilocybin,” it continues. “Further follow-up is warranted.”

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