Australia legalized and regulated MDMA and psilocybin mushrooms, and the country will begin allowing prescriptions starting July 1.
Doctors will only be able to prescribe MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, to patients attempting to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin mushrooms to patients who have experienced treatment-resistant depression. Every prescribing psychiatrist must obtain approval from a Human Research Ethics Committee out of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
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The newly legalized drugs “are not eligible for listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme,” which is a list of medications that are subsidized by the Australian government, according to its guidance.
Psilocybin, as it is found in mushrooms, is a relatively cheap drug, but it requires a “treatment protocol involving assessment and on-going psycho-therapeutic management by the psychiatrist before and after administration of appropriately supervised single dosing of the patient in an appropriate setting (such as a day hospital or an inpatient setting),” which could contribute to the treatment cost.
The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University has conducted extensive research into psilocybin as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and nicotine addiction.
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Meanwhile, Colorado and Oregon have also legalized psilocybin mushrooms, and a handful of other cities have passed local measures decriminalizing some psychedelics, including Denver and Washington, D.C.
MDMA, on the other hand, is a synthetic drug that was initially developed as an appetite suppressant. It is a hallucinogenic drug while simultaneously being a stimulant, so it requires close supervision as its users risk dehydration, hypothermia, and kidney and liver failure from over-exertion while under its effects.
