For the next two weeks, a digital poster campaign will be featured in London asking the UK public “Could magic mushrooms be medicine?”.
The campaign invites the public to consider the emerging clinical data suggesting that psilocybin-assisted therapy could be used to treat conditions such as depression, anxiety, substance use disorders and cluster headaches.
Launched by the Psilocybin Access Rights (PAR) campaign, the digital poster follows developments in Australia, which has seen Australia, a Commonwealth country, became the first country to reschedule these traditionally stigmatised substances for use in psychotherapy.
The country’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has rescheduled psilocybin and MDMA to allow prescription by licensed psychiatrists. The conditions eligible include depression for psilocybin prescriptions and PTSD for MDMA prescriptions.
In the UK, however, scientific research into psychedelics for treating mental and other health conditions is hindered by expensive licensing due to the scheduling of the substances.
Currently, psilocybin is a class A drug and a schedule 1 substance, making it incredibly difficult for researchers and medical professionals to access and a more highly controlled substance than heroin or cocaine – despite the recognised promise of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
PAR campaigners highlight that there is a desperate need for innovation in UK mental health care, which antidepressant use having doubled in England in the last decade.
PAR Campaign Director, Tara Austin, said: “The rescheduling of psilocybin will bring hope to millions. Antidepressant use in England has doubled over the last decade and one in every 10 pounds spent by the NHS is for mental health treatments, yet there have been no significant developments since SSRI antidepressants were developed more than 50 years ago.
“Just one single dose of psilocybin has been shown in studies to reduce the distress of those with terminal illness and treatment-resistant depression. No other intervention has been shown to have such significant long-term benefits after just a single exposure.
“People deserve to know the truth and to read the research for themselves. Our campaign invites them to look at the data and show our government that we expect them to do the same and put the science first over outdated stigma.
“We need more signatures on our petition this to signal to the government that the time has come to make this medicine more available as a medicine.”
In addition to the developments in Australia, Prince Harry recently admitted he had undertaken psychedelic therapy, saying of the substances involved “if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma, these things have a way of working as a medicine”.
The PAR campaign is now urging the UK public to sign its petition calling for the rescheduling of psilocybin. So far, the petition has reached more than 10,000 signatures – triggering a response from the Government – but organisers need further signatures before its deadline of 17 February 2023 in order to trigger the issue to be debated in Parliament.
To find out more please visit www.cdprg.co.uk/psilocybin-access-rights-par.
