In light of clinical research showing MDMA-assisted therapy as a potential treatment for PTSD, at PSYCH Symposium in the British Museum on 6 July a conversation on ‘Solutions For Police Are Solutions For Society’ explored the mental health crisis in UK policing.
Explaining how c-PTSD is like “death by a thousand cuts”, Neil Woods, Director of LEAP UK which advocates for evidence-based drug policy, was joined in conversation by Benzinga journalist Natan Ponieman, where Woods shared his own personal experience with the condition which stemmed from his time serving in the UK police force.
Detailing personal traumatic encounters and his own struggles with moral injury, Woods explained that there is currently a mental health crisis among UK police.
“The environment when you do become mentally ill in the police is horrendous,” said Woods. “I was treated as the enemy when I became mentally ill, I was treated with great suspicion – so, we still have a lot of education to do.”
This mental health crisis in policing is translating into a political crisis, Woods explained, as the public has lost confidence in the police.
MDMA-assisted therapy has been showing great promise for the treatment of PTSD, and Ponieman posed the question of how advocating for psychedelic therapy for police can help further access for other patients.
“In the United States there has been great political momentum highlighting psychedelic therapies for veterans … right across the political spectrum,” said Woods, who explained that LEAP UK is working for change not just with psychedelic treatments, but also for all drug policy to be evidence-based.
“We want to disrupt the general thinking, we want to provoke and disrupt the political thinking, because that’s where we believe we can really move things forward in terms of developing the policies that we need,” Woods commented.
This is being done in “broad brushstroke terms” through media engagement and engagement with different countries, explained Woods, who called on anyone wanting to get involved in policy discussions to contact the organisation.
