Exhibitors display their goods at the Psychedelic Science conference in the Colorado Convention Center in Denver in June.
A vendor bags psilocybin mushrooms at a cannabis marketplace in 2019 in Los Angeles.
Former Gov. Rick Perry spoke at a Denver conference put on by a psychedelic advocacy group bringing together an unlikely cohort of speakers.
Once soccer moms are risking felony arrest to eat tiny amounts of psychedelic mushrooms for their anxiety and depression, you know government officials and the pharmaceutical industry are tragically behind the curve.
The Wall Street Journal Magazine published a lengthy feature on the growing number of middle- and upper-income women who micro-dose psilocybin, the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms. They are imitating indigenous groups who have used plant-based psychedelics for millennia.
The magazine’s reporting reflects my anecdotal observations. More and more people I meet are experimenting with psychedelics and finding them more effective than authorized psychoactive pharmaceuticals at treating their complaints, with far fewer side effects.
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Researchers and psychiatrists are catching on, and so are venture capitalists and a slew of startups, as I learned at the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals in Austin. There are even promising signs that federal regulators are catching up, too.
SXSW has hosted a track focused on psychedelics for years as Silicon Valley moguls have searched for ways to boost their creativity. Taking some form of illegal drug that bends human perception has become a rite of passage, peer-reviewed research shows.
While recreational users focus on mushrooms and LSD, the most promising psychedelic for medical use at the moment is MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, Molly. The scientific name is 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
The Drug Enforcement Agency lists MDMA as a Schedule 1 drug with no medical uses. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to reach a different conclusion in August after reviewing an application by Lykos Therapeutics.
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Researchers expect the FDA to approve the drug for use with traditional talk therapy because it reduces inhibitions, anxiety and emotional distress for many people undergoing post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. Patients must talk through their experiences, and clinical tests show MDMA speeds up the healing process.
“This is an exciting time to be a psychiatrist,” said Julie Holland, a psychiatrist and psychedelic researcher. “This is like adding anesthesia to surgery.”
MDMA and other psychedelics must first overcome their reputations as harmful recreational drugs for the counterculture. The late Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen lobbied the DEA to ban the drug in 1985 after he learned the Dallas elite were taking Ecstasy in large quantities at the swanky Starck Club.
That was the “Just Say No” era, when U.S. politicians wanted to show their prohibitionist bona fides. A federal administrative judge recommended that the DEA allow doctors to prescribe MDMA, but the agency banned all uses instead, including research.
The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, developed a new class of psychoactive drugs in the 1980s that also manipulate brain chemistry. While those drugs have few qualities that encourage misuse, they also have notorious side effects that discourage people from taking them.
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Self-described traditional healers, psychedelic activists and some psychiatrists have secretly experimented ever since with remarkable results. Hence, the new interest among the public and the medical community in psychedelic research that is replicating the anecdotal reports from the underground.
Many people desperate for relief are no longer waiting for the FDA and the DEA, and they are taking illicit drugs without knowing what’s in them.
“We have poisoned drug supply in America,” Holland warned, citing reports of fentanyl showing up in some samples. “If we had better drug laws, it would be safer.”
Plant-based medicine advocates also worry that federal law picks winners and losers. Combat veterans have led the charge for the legalization of psychedelics and marijuana to treat their PTSD, but politicians are less sympathetic to others who are benefiting from illicit treatments.
While the DEA is not focused on arresting middle-class women taking psilocybin, law enforcement still arrests thousands of people for marijuana and other plant-based drugs every month.
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“Who are the people who have the right to heal?” asked Reggie Harris, whose company Hyphae tests mushroom products and advocates for the legalization of plant-based medicines. “We should see the humanity in everybody.”
Texas has slowly expanded medical marijuana and allowed some research into psychedelics, but prohibitionists still control the state. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has opposed any legalization effort, even though marijuana and psychedelics have shown promise in treating opioid and alcohol addiction.
Adding insult to injury, Texas has the lowest number of patients in substance abuse rehabilitation centers, National Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data shows.
Texans need to rethink the failed war on drugs and focus on providing health care. Medical professionals could treat thousands of people who have PTSD, depression, anxiety and addiction if politicians would only get out of the way.
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonhchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.
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