October 22, 2021 - 3:45pm
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.
That Johnson couldn’t put a name to psilocybin yesterday — “controlled drugs such as, uh, the one he describes” — may suggest his ‘sign-off’ was another soon-made-soon-forgotten promise the PM is fond of making. Kit Malthouse remembered the name, but any “hallucinogenic compound”, he underlined, wouldn’t be mass-available for anyone soon without more serious research. This has dampened enthusiasm that anything will happen any time soon.
The emphasis on ‘more research’ creates a kind of Catch-22: on the one hand, regulators and the government want more credible papers, and on the other they’re damming the workflows that get them out. For all the expense and red tape associated with Schedule-1 treatment, the Home Office has previously-clarified there’s no need to make any change.
Indeed, while the British public doesn’t yet seem ready to countenance broader change — 43% of Brits polled in 2018 believe that anyone who’s ever taken magic mushrooms should be restricted from office — just over half of Tories and three-fifths of Labour and Lib Dem voters would support re-scheduling, according to YouGov polls from earlier this year. Even strongly-prohibitionist publications like The Daily Mail have shown sympathy to psychedelic therapy.
Again, as with cannabis, there may be an ‘Alfie’ moment for psilocybin that accelerates the process: certain exceptional cases, like veterans afflicted with PTSD or terminal cancer patients facing death anxiety, may be afforded legal loopholes for treatment and build further legitimacy. It’s hard to see how the government could stand in their way.
With the government seeking to expand Britain’s £80 billion life sciences sector after Covid-19 — however odd it sounds — the British psychedelic sector promoted by Blunt may not be too far off.
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SubscribeIt’s hard to see why they are illegal in the first place. And leaving aside their positive impact on people with depression etc they may have benefits for the mentally healthy too.
I understand the point of one commenter that they can make the drudge of everyday life well – a bit like drudgery. But so do holidays.
And just as the idea of constant travel sounds better on paper than it does in reality – most grow out of it, and prefer stability – so constant psychedelic experience would simply be too much. Paradoxically it is just too big a thing to do all the time.
I remember in the 90s it was possible to legally buy magic mushrooms. There were several sellers at Camden Market, set up like green grocers stalls, with different varieties available for sale in various weights. The stall holders were knowledgeable about their products and able to give recommendations to their customers. E.g if someone was new to mushrooms, they’d recommend a mild variety, and for the more experienced, they’d have a range of other varieties. Those mushroom experts are still out there somewhere.
There is a lot of work being done in places like Imperial College to assess the efficacy of psilocybin, but there is always the issue of recreational use that muddys the water when discussion of this topic arises.
Back in my youth of endless bad choices I do actually warmly remember the dawn coming in the night air, parked on the edge of a cow pasture in a warm Central Florida stoner days…. and at very first light – over the barbed wire and into the field, and hunting fast for the Psilocybe cubensis with its little blush on the top…before farmers or cops took notice, then off home and wait till evening to brew up the cool-aid and get tripping…….
But the problem with drugs – and I know them pretty well, is they give un-earned pleasure. Normal drudge life just sucks as a poor, unskilled laborer, but getting stoned? That was better, and I spent a great deal of time with addicts and stoners and casual users…..
I have heard that most safe drug MDMA, Estacy, can so rewire your brains pleasure recptors than one can never again, in all life, expierence that amount of pleasure again – you just lowered the bar for life, for that good night… Drugs are not good, I have been down with them, and then once finally, finally, you get straight for good – well life is just flat – it just has lost some of its flavor, it is never again as good as it was when stoned, easier, healthier, but you lost the love of your life……..Years later, decade perhaps, life is OK, you stop missing it so much – but you never are really home in sobriety, you are always stuck in a place which is not home, and it would be so nice to go back…. but you get over it pretty much and ignore that, and stay strait….
it reminds me of giving up cigarette smoking. 20 to 30 a day, 10 to 15 hits per cigarette… a pernicious drug. Giving up was like waiting for a bus that never arrived. Beautiful to be free, but remember the feeling. Drugs I’ve dabbled in and still do from time to time… only very occasionally and very hilariously thank goodness. I’m not particularly susceptible.
It’s a great idea. Read the research programme material and see how it could help people. Why exclude possibilities a priori? You can sign up online for medical trials. The woo-woo of O’Leary era scares is long gone.
The Tories are all high. That explains their economic policies: A higher form of rationality.
I shall pop along to Conservative Home to spread the news.
this is complete a foot in the door to ‘Brave New World’ SOMA, same with the drug legalization – coming soon is mechanization/AI taking the unskilled jobs, and as we all know, ‘Proverbs 16:27-2927 Idle hands are the devil’s workshop’, and so Plan B is being developed.
“”All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects.” “
“”..there is always soma, delicious soma, half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a week-end, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon…””
“”you do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma.””
“”Soma was served with the coffee. Lenina took two half-gramme tablets and Henry three.””
“”the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of soma-holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing every one was! “”
“”The policemen pushed him out of the way and got on with their work. Three men with spraying machines buckled to their shoulders pumped thick clouds of soma vapour into the air.””
“‘Hug me till you drug me, honey;
Kiss me till I’m in a coma;
Hug me, honey, snuggly bunny;
Love’s as good as soma.””
Just need your soma, your Sex/Partner Love Robot, your Virtual-Reality headset and a really good “Better Than Real Life’ AI-Game.