Psychedelics Approved In Australia

Despite years of use in the US, UK & Europe and proven to be highly nutritious and sustainable, Australia along with its Tasman partner New Zealand, were the last countries in the western world to lift bans on hemp as a food in November 2017.

Appearing on one hand to be stuck in the past, it's a ground breaking move for Australia to be the first in the world to approve the use of Psilocybin and MDMA in psychedelic treatments.

Considering the Therapeutic Goods Administration's (TGA) decision in late December 2021, to not amend the Poisons Standards relating to Psilocybin and MDMA, the news came as a shock to many practitioners and researchers.

There's a long road ahead, but in a nutshell, patients suffering from PTSD will be eligible to obtain prescription medicines containing Psilocybin and patients suffering from depression will be eligible to obtain prescription medicines containing MDMA from July 2023.

From a historical perspective, the indigenous people of Central and Southern America were reputedly the first to discover the psychedelic effects of mushrooms, cacti and seeds. For centuries they used them for healing and religious purposes.

Originating from the Peyote cactus, Mescaline was the first psychedelic to be successfully extracted in the late 1800's. This was followed by the discovery and isolation of LSD and Psilocybin in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.

After decades of work, research on psychedelics in psychiatry came to a slow holt in the US in the 1970's. It took until the 1990's for research to go through a revival, with the first clinical study on Psilocybin published in 2006.

What do we know so far? Administering psychedelics in a controlled environment has proven to be helpful in treating depression, anxiety, PTSD and substance dependency.

Once a taboo practice, Microdosing psychedelics has gone mainstream. Microdosing is about getting the wanted benefits without tripping or getting high.

Microdosing is often used to improve mood and wellbeing and to boost professional performance, mental concentration and cognitive function.

Considering Big Pharma's influence over clinical trials and their ability to buy doctors, journalists, media, charities and politicians, it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

It's a small step, but nonetheless a step in the right direction and we applaud Australia for being the first.