Culture

By 

Erin Bunch

Feb 10, 2023

2

 Minute read

Australia Just Became the First Country to Legalize Magic Mushrooms

Psychiatrists down under will soon be able to prescribe psilocybin to treat certain mental health conditions.

In a groundbreaking move, Australia just legalized psilocybin and MDMA, becoming the first country in the world to do so. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which is the national agency responsible for regulating drugs and medical devices, announced last week that as of July 1, 2023, these psychedelics will be rescheduled from prohibited substances to controlled substances. This means that both drugs—or medicines, rather—will be available by physician prescription.

When the new regulations go into effect, licensed psychiatrists will be able to legally prescribe psilocybin for patients with treatment-resistant depression and MDMA for patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Explaining its decision, the agency said in a statement that there’s “sufficient evidence” that “psychotherapy involving psilocybin and MDMA has shown to be potentially beneficial for these conditions.”

The legalization won’t be without limitations. Patients prescribed MDMA or psilocybin will also be required to undergo concurrent psychotherapy, and physicians hoping to access these treatments will have to become “Authorized Prescribers,” endorsed by the TGA and other bodies, with proof of sufficient expertise specific to therapeutic MDMA and psilocybin administration.

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Although these requirements will limit access, the agency’s decision represents progress towards making psychedelic therapy more mainstream. “This is a baby step in the right direction, and what it does is allow us to do things in an appropriately safe way for everyone… and if necessary, take a step back as well,” Vinay Lakra, President of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, tells The Guardian.

Some experts believe these new laws don’t go far enough, and that psychedelic treatments should be made available to a broader swath of individuals—not just those suffering from treatment-resistant depression and PTSD—given that there’s evidence for their efficacy in treating a number of other conditions, including substance abuse, anorexia nervosa, generalized anxiety disorder, and end-of-life anxiety. These advocates hope this initial rescheduling will be closely followed by an expansion to accommodate a greater number of those in need of psychedelic treatment.

But even without broader legalization, these initial changes in Australian policy—which are similar to those currently being explored in smaller jurisdictions such as Oregon and Colorado—help to reduce stigma that can hinder research and access. “The safe ‘re-medicalization’ of certain historically illicit drugs is a very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization,” says David Caldicott, Emergency Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Medicine at the Australian National University. “In addition to a clear and evolving therapeutic benefit, it also offers the chance to catch up on the decades of lost opportunity in delving into the inner workings of the human mind, abandoned for so long as part of an ill-conceived, ideological ‘War on Drugs’.”

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