Author: brightsity

In May 2018, then President Trump signed the Right to Try Act, suggesting allowances for terminally-ill patients to use psychedelics for treatment.

Denver, Colorado, becoming the first city to decriminalize psilocybin in May 2019. Oakland and Santa Cruz, both in California, have decriminalized psilocybin by January 2020.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression (as well as MDMA for PTSD) ’Breakthrough Therapy’ designation. This classification means that the treatment has demonstrated significant potential in early clinical trials, opening the way for the FDA to expedite subsequent development and review processes. The major Clinialtrials.gov database lists 31 research trials using psilocybin (that are recruiting, active or completed), 9 using LSD, and a further 45 using the psychedelic-linked MDMA.

In November 2020, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 109, decriminalizing psilocybin and also legalizing it for therapeutic use. While state and local initiatives to decriminalize and legalize the use, sale, and possession of psilocybin are ongoing in the United States, it is illegal under federal law.

In his book “Drugs without the hot air”, David Nutt writes: “Although a bad LSD trip can be extremely frightening and distressing, psychedelics overall are among the safest drugs we know of. When the ISCD expert panel were rating LSD and mushrooms (which contain psilocybin) by our 16 criteria, they both scored either 0 or 1 (on 0-100 scales) in everything apart from specific and related impairment of mental functioning. It’s virtually impossible to die from an overdose of them; they cause no physical harm; and if anything they are anti-addictive.”

The research group at John Hopkins (2008), state”The most likely risk is overwhelming distress during drug action (‘bad trip’), which could lead to potentially dangerous behaviour such as leaving the study site. Before using psychedelics, it’s critical to educate yourself on responsible use, especially if you have a pre-existing mental health problem or a predisposition to them (close relatives with anxiety, depression, psychosis or schizophrenia).