In one of the stranger moments in the Commons this month (even year), Crispin Blunt — the decidedly un-dreadlocked Conservative MP for Reigate — urged Boris Johnson in PMQs this week to “cut through” legal restrictions on psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to enable further research on its “exciting potential” for “depression, trauma and addiction”.
Conservative MP Crispin Blunt urges the prime minister to "cut through" barriers to research into psilocybin – the psychedelic drug found in magic mushrooms – which "has potential to help people suffering with depression, trauma and addiction"#PMQs https://t.co/txBJvNx4gp pic.twitter.com/yvq4ingdk4
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 20, 2021
Johnson responded that he’d consider a coming round of regulatory advice and get back “as soon as possible”.
It’s not the first time psychedelic reform has been raised in the Commons. But it’s certainly the most momentous.
This is, after all, a High Tory (sorry) making a push for drug reform that has strikingly cross-partisan appeal. The All-Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform, for example, of which Blunt is Co-Chair, draws together the likes of Caroline Lucas, Neil Kinnock, the SNP’s Alison Thewliss, and Labour’s Jeff Smith; others like David Lammy, Norman Lamb and even Nigel Farage have expressed support for change too. Their reasons may differ (libertarian anti-statism, harm reduction [as with Scotland’s concerning opioid overdose problem], and economic opportunity post-pandemic), but political momentum is gathering, albeit slowly.
So how did we get here? As some readers may have encountered, psychedelic drugs have shown (what’s usually called) ‘great promise’ in clinical trials for various mental health conditions. While led largely from the States, the UK’s own ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is powered through Imperial College London and King’s, which are currently recruiting for studies on psilocybin’s capacity for treating anorexia and depression. Also involved are influential dedicated think tanks like the Beckley Foundation and Drug Science, advocacy groups, and an active underground with surprising variety. It is therefore a potential boon for de rigueur mental health concerns.
But for all their promise, the problem for psychedelics is predictably legal. The drugs are all Class-A and Schedule-1-listed by regulators, which requires researchers to obtain costly ‘product licenses’ to do psychedelic work.
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