Thousands of Americans Treated With Psilocybin in 2025 (cnn.com) 27
In a new 4,000-word article, CNN tells the story of a retired appellate paralegal and grandmother in her early 70s who was treated for depression with psilocybin. CNN notes there's now retreats featuring psilocybin in a few countries — and while psilocybin is illegal under United States federal law, "In Oregon, 5,935 clients received psilocybin services through Oregon's state-regulated program in 2025."
High doses of psilocybin are effective in treating depression, a growing body of research suggests, with promise for other conditions, like PTSD and addiction, said Dr. Albert Garcia-Romeu, associate director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University... Some researchers suggest it disrupts entrenched traffic patterns in the brain or grows new neuron connections to change thinking. Others say the results from psilocybin could have to do with its anti-inflammatory effect, Garcia-Romeu said...
Colorado became the second state to make psilocybin legal with a 2023 law and issued its first healing center" last year. A law adopted in New Mexico last year established that state's Medical Psilocybin Program, now in development... Psilocybin seems to be "knocking on the door of FDA approval," said Dr. Lynn Marie Morski, president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, which educates health care providers on the therapeutic use of psychedelics so they can answer patients' questions through the lenses of clinical evidence and harm reduction. Psilocybin therapy first received a "breakthrough therapy" designation for treatment-resistant depression from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018, and now psilocybin drug products are on track to be submitted to the FDA for possible approval in the not-too-distant future.
Colorado became the second state to make psilocybin legal with a 2023 law and issued its first healing center" last year. A law adopted in New Mexico last year established that state's Medical Psilocybin Program, now in development... Psilocybin seems to be "knocking on the door of FDA approval," said Dr. Lynn Marie Morski, president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, which educates health care providers on the therapeutic use of psychedelics so they can answer patients' questions through the lenses of clinical evidence and harm reduction. Psilocybin therapy first received a "breakthrough therapy" designation for treatment-resistant depression from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2018, and now psilocybin drug products are on track to be submitted to the FDA for possible approval in the not-too-distant future.
While psilocybin is illegal under United States federal law, more states are creating their own paths for legal use under state laws.
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-- Nancy Reagan
Re:Psilocybin? (Score:5, Insightful)
What she meant is that only losers buy drugs on the street, real people have them delivered in less class-denying packages.
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Unless you're talking about cocaine etc. brought to the penthouse by a personal assistant or something. Plenty of ultra-rich celebs have killed themselves that way.
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The Underlying Question: Why depressed? (Score:2)
If we understand that, it is very likely that no drug will be necessary. People won't become depressed.
BOOK: The Mindful Way through Depression (Score:1)
The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness
https://www.amazon.com/Mindful... [amazon.com]
No drug necessary.
Re:BOOK: The Mindful Way through Depression (Score:5, Interesting)
You're holding you wrong. Congrats on your relative positive baseline perception of life. Next, tell people with chronic fatigue about what energizes you, those with diabetes about the "natural sugars" you consume, and those with paraplegia about the pleasure you get from thought experiments.
Pro tip for Amazon or any sales link: Immediately re-sort reviews by time. Interesting how this one had a middling review recently and ~40 5-star reviews without comments within a couple months of the book's 2024 release.
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We would have to re-arrange society to ease many of the stressors in life. I predict we'll be needing those drugs for a while.
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Re: The Underlying Question: Why depressed? (Score:3)
the fact we are inundated with information these days. I won't say ignorance is bliss, but it seems a lot of not very aware people( I'm being kind here) are generally happier. A farmer 100 years ago (like over 60 percent of the population back then), worried about family, crops, rain, animals and that's pretty much it. People also had time to be still... stillness is becoming a forgotten joy.
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You can get fired at the drop of a hat for no reason at all. Bosses blow their top over being 1 minute late. Fill out these forms you just filled out last week and again online before you can see the doctor. IRS knows exactly what you made and what you paid in witholding, and what you owe but YOU need to compute it, better not be wrong! Don't be late! Rent and mortgage take up an ever increasing portion of your monthly income (if any). 23 calls a day, mostly scams. You have health insurance even though it w
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If we understand that, it is very likely that no drug will be necessary
i agree that understanding what's wrong with our lifestyle and society should be the priority, but psilocybin actually helps with that at the individual, personal level. that's exactly how/why it works. think of it as a sort of enlighment or rediscovery of self, not a drug side efect. improvements are long lasting and continued use is not needed nor recommended.
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It's easy for you to say when you (presumably) don't suffer from it. But for those that to, that cannot find the root cause but whose lives are literally paused, should they wait for ever? Or should they seek treatment to rejoin the world of the living? To get back to some sort of a baseline from which they can address a root cause?
Unless you've experienced something as daunting as a clinical depression or anxiety, perhaps you'd have empathy rather than judgment.
You can't legalize drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
Because of that you are never going to see things like this used properly and legalized which is a shame because psychedelics have been shown repeatedly to be a game changer for people with post traumatic stress disorder. And there are a lot of people with PTSD beyond soldiers.
The catch is that for it to work you need to do it under Dr supervision generally. You need someone there who can carefully guide you through the process. Just dropping a tab of acid isn't usually going to work. So by criminalizing it an entire group of people whose lives could be transformed or just left out in the cold. But compared to the billions and billions of dollars that can be made using the drug war to win elections that's a small price to pay.
And of course because we have been conditioned to view talk about politics as dirty anytime you bring this up you're guaranteed to piss everybody off. It is no coincidence that you are conditioned not to talk about your salary with your coworkers or your political beliefs.
Fun fact the reason rural towns tend to be right wing is because there is usually one extremely wealthy landowner who runs the show and if you deviate slightly from orthodoxy then he's the only employer in town and he runs the church and everything else and you're basically persona non grata.
I bring it up because it's another way that the discussion and debate in our country is locked down to the benefit of people who do not have your best interests at heart
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Way to straw man your way to glory ... in your own mind. You seem like a perfect candidate for psychedelic therapy, maybe open you up a bit to the universe.
In fact, the parent poster was correct. Nixon advisor John Ehrlichman admitted to this in 1994.
https://harpers.org/archive/20... [harpers.org]
"You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminali
It's Oregon (Score:2)
Where will they find a control group?
Just ignorant? (Score:4, Informative)
It's Oregon, where will they find a control group?
You do realize they have Mennonites in Oregon right? If not then you should really educate yourself about the nation you live within because it's quite diverse. If you think diversity is a bad thing then perhaps you're in the wrong nation.
Re: Just ignorant? (Score:3)
We have Mennonites. And we have lots of Mormons. We also have Sasquatch. And elves, probably. We definitely have the Oregon State Fair, and I'm pretty sure everyone at the fair is on shrooms.
It works (Score:4, Interesting)
Grammar (Score:2)
Would Like to See MDMA Legal for PTSD (Score:2)
Futurama right again (Score:2)
No. Straight line to corporate profits and easy exploitation of vulnerable willing people. Keep doctors way way away.
And don't drive when you do hallucinogens.