Johns Hopkins researchers calling for magic mushrooms as medicine

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It’s not every day that a team of top-notch scientists calls for
an illegal
psychedelic drug to be made available as medicine.

But earlier this year, some of the leading researchers at Johns
Hopkins University — people who’ve pioneered some of the
highest-caliber studies on
psychedelics’ therapeutic mental health potential — suggested
that’s what should happen for a drug derived from magic
mushrooms.

In a recent
article published in the medical journal Neuropharmacology,
four preeminent psychiatrists wrote that psilocybin, the active
ingredient in magic mushrooms, should be placed in the most
lenient category by the Drug Enforcement Administration and made
legally available through clinicians, pending final data from
several ongoing clinical trials.

In essence, they argue, the potential benefits presented by
psilocybin outweigh its possible harms.

The available evidence suggests they’re correct.

Although the DEA currently considers psilocybin a Schedule I drug
“with no medical use,” the past decade has seen a resurgence of
research on
psychedelics’ therapeutic possibilities for treating
psychiatric diseases like anxiety and depression. A
large recent survey also suggested that magic mushrooms
could be among the safest recreational drugs.

That suggests to several experts — including the authors of the
recent article — that psilocybin should be handled differently
than, say, heroin or bath salts (other Schedule I drugs).

“It is the opinion of the authors of this review that the
original placement of psilocybin was the result of a substantial
overestimation of the risk of harm and abuse potential,” they
wrote.

The authors included Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
professors of psychiatry Matthew Johnson, Roland Griffiths, and
Jack Henningfield; as well as Peter Hendricks, an associate
professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham’s School of Public Health.

A resurgence of interest in psychedelics as medicine

Daiana Lorenz/Youtube

Over the past several years, a handful of studies have suggested
that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin could help treat a range
of mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, drug
addiction, and PTSD.

One of those studies — a clinical
trial published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2016
— was written by Griffiths and Johnson, two authors of the recent
piece outlining why psilocybin should be made medically
available. Griffiths’ and Johnson’s seminal work concluded that
in people with a terminal cancer diagnosis, a single high dose of
psilocybin appeared to help
pull them out of severe depression and anxiety. On a press
call after the study came out, Griffiths likened the treatment to
“a surgical intervention” for the mental illnesses.

Since then, research into drugs like LSD, ecstasy, ketamine, and
marijuana (which many experts consider to have psychedelic
properties) has abounded. Last year, a study suggested that

ecstasy could help veterans cope with PTSD symptoms. Another
recent paper hinted that
ketamine could be used to curb severe depression. Several
more recent studies of psilocybin have suggested it might help
treat obsessive-compulsive
disorder as well.

“At this point, the data suggest that the potential therapeutic
benefits of psilocybin-assisted therapy are real, and of
potential medical and public health significance,” the four
authors wrote in their recent article.

The findings on psychedelics are also garnering the attention of
investors and tech moguls. Just last month, German entrepreneur
Christian Angermeyer launched a
new biotech company called Atai with the mission of backing
more psychedelic mental health research.
Compass Pathways, a research startup studying and
producing psilocybin for depression, recently attracted
backing from tech magnate Peter Thiel.

But the legal classifications of these drugs not be keeping
adequate pace with the research or the investments.

‘Replacing fear and misinformation with scientifically based
facts’

Despite the ongoing research, neither the Food and Drug
Administration nor the DEA has announced an intent to reschedule
psilocybin or any other psychedelic. But such a move could
happen. It did recently with marijuana.

In June, the FDA approved the
first medicine made with a compound from cannabis. Called

Epidiolex, the drug treats two rare forms of epilepsy using
CBD, a marijuana compound that’s not responsible for a high. As a
result of the FDA’s green light, the DEA was forced to
reclassify CBD.

“We don’t have a choice on that,” DEA public affairs officer
Barbara Carreno told Business Insider in June. “It absolutely has
to become Schedule 2, 3, 4, or 5.”

So this September, the DEA officially shifted its stance on
marijuana for the first time in 46 years by
putting CBD in Schedule 5 alongside substances like cough
syrup and sleep aids — all drugs that the agency considers at the
lowest risk of abuse or harm.

In their article on psilocybin, the authors write that it too
should be placed in Schedule 5, pending its approval as a
medicine. Some experts say that could happen
as soon as 2027.

“Schedule I is for substances with a high potential for abuse,
lack of therapeutic approval, and that cannot be used safely in
medicine,” they write. “History of use and available scientific
data show that the first criterion is questionable, and the third
criterion is likely not true.”

Meanwhile, the research on psilocybin is continuing to blossom.
Clinical trial results from
Compass are expected before 2020; researchers at the
University of California, San Francisco are
currently enrolling patients in a study to see whether
psilocybin could assist in group therapy to improve the mental
health of long-term AIDS survivors; and scientists at New York
University
aim to study whether psilocybin could be used to treat
alcoholism.

Johnson, Griffiths, Henningfield, and Hendricks seem to believe
the future of those studies — and psilocybin’s potential — is
bright.

“This area of regulatory science has the potential to facilitate
innovative therapeutic breakthroughs by replacing fear and
misinformation with scientifically based conclusions and facts,”
they wrote.

Read more of our psychedelic medicine coverage: