Psychedelic sense

When Medsafe announced last month it had granted approval to an application to prescribe psilocybin - the active compound in “magic” mushrooms - the public response was notable for its lack of consternation. Psilocybin is, after all, a class A controlled drug, meaning, according to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, it poses “a very high risk of harm”.

- Russell Brown

Yet some of the reaction assumed the approval went further than it did. You are not about to be able to pop down to a dispensary and pick up some ‘shrooms for the weekend. The approval - the first outside a research environment - was granted to one practising psychiatrist to administer psilocybin in the context of intensive psychotherapy for patients with treatment-resistant depression. These are people for whom conventional therapies have failed.

The psychiatrist, Professor Cameron Lacey, has a strong record in health research and three years ago conducted a trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for depression under the wing of the University of Otago. Positive results in the trial, and Lacey's diligence in working through the requirements in the act and its associated regulations for controlled drugs to be prescribed, have won him the approval.