A UK Parliamentary debate on 18 May saw crossparty calls to conduct an urgent review of the evidence for psilocybin’s current status as a Schedule 1 drug under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, “with a view to rescheduling”.
Initially, the rescheduling of psilocybin would be for research purposes only.
This would help facilitate the development of new mental health treatments, as increasing clinical evidence from around the world is showing the compound as a promising treatment in this area.
However, research in the UK is currently challenging due to psilocybin’s status as a Schedule 1 drug, leading to high licensing and laboratory costs.
The calls were supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Heroic Hearts and other leading mental health charities, which penned letters to the Veterans Minister and the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, urging them to support access to psilocybin for mental health in the UK.
Opening with a passionate speech regarding her own experience with PTSD, MP Charlotte Nichols who led the call said she has spoken to countless researchers that have run into issues that make psychedelic research either needlessly more expensive or “so prohibitively difficult to do that it’s had to be abandoned”.
“There is a huge credibility gap between psychiatry and politics for this reason,” said Nichols.
“They can’t understand why, at a time when we claim that we’re listening to experts in the field of health, and when this country is facing a mental health crisis, that we’re satisfied with doing nothing in Westminster on this issue.
“Why do we set up expert bodies and not listen to them? It’s dangerous, immoral and unethical, and it’s frankly offensive to both psychiatrists and their patients that we seem to think, as politicians, that we know better because of some moral panic 50 years ago.”
Nichols continued: “It feels like institutional cruelty, to condemn us to our misery when there are proven safe and effective treatment options if the government would only let us access them.”
The Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group (CDPRGUK), that has campaigned for three years on the rescheduling of psilocybin, commented: “We commend the cross-party group of 26 MPs for securing this milestone debate – this is a chance to scrutinise the government’s lack of action on opening up research into a medicine that has the potential to transform the treatment options available to more than a million people living with severe depression.”
In the discussion, MP Crispin Blunt, Founder and Unremunerated Chair of CDPRGUK, highlighted that since 2017, 40,000 people with depression and trauma have taken their own lives.
Underlining that the current cost of depression to the UK economy is estimated to be around £110 billion a year, equivalent to 5% of GDP, Blunt said that even if psilocybin delivers a fraction of what is hoped “the benefits to the economy will be immense…”.
He continued: “The Home Office has the power to commission a review of the evidence and there is precedent to commission such review, as was the case with cannabis-based products for medicinal use.”
The UK’s Drugs Minster did now show up for the discussion and instead, the Government was represented by the Immigration Minister.
CDPRGUK continued: “Next week it will be necessary to establish why the Minister tasked with speaking on behalf of the Government was not the Minister with policy responsibility; unsurprisingly, the Immigration Minister had only a general grasp of the issues being discussed, and was in no position to make commitments on behalf of the government.
“No explanation was offered for why the Drugs Minster, despite having been given notice of the debate a fortnight in advance, chose to be elsewhere.
“Instead, the Minster gave a set of stock responses that have already been provided in answer to MPs’ written questions, in previous debates and in Oral Questions.
“The Minister’s comment that the government ‘has ambition’ in this area is quite at odds with the seriousness with which they treated their response to this debate.”
Alongside the pressing need to develop innovative mental health treatments, Blunt highlighted the brain drain taking place in the UK due to its restrictions on psychedelic research, with researchers relocating to other countries to carry out their work.
“Put simply, the Home Office is the enemy of the Prime Minister’s aim to make Britain a centre of global biosciences,” warned Blunt.
Keith Abraham, CEO of Heroic Hearts UK, who wrote to the Minister of State Johnny Mercer urging him to support the campaign, commented: “I take heart from the fact we even managed to get this debate to happen and that it has received positive coverage from MSM, thanks in part to two very moving speeches delivered by Charlotte and Crispin. The CDPRG and Psilocybin Access Rights (PAR) teams have worked very hard to get us this far and it feels absolutely like progress.
“However, it was disappointing to see the appropriate Minister not in attendance. That speaks volumes about how seriously the government takes this issue.
“I still believe we are making progress but there is clearly a long road ahead of us still.”
“We hope that the relevant officials will hear what has been said today, acknowledge the huge unmet need that must urgently be addressed, and persuade the Drugs Minister to commission the ACMD to review the evidence of harms of psilocybin with a view to rescheduling immediately,” concluded CDPRGUK.
