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Melissa Lavasani never expected to grow psychedelic mushrooms in her Washington, DC home or become a force behind a successful measure that makes the cultivation and possession of medicinal plants and mushrooms the lowest priority for the police and local prosecutors.
But the mother-of-two became desperate in 2018 as her mental health suffered from a years-long battle with postpartum depression and chronic pain. She had tried everything: antidepressants, talk therapy, meditation and even cupping. None of this seemed to work.
After listening to a podcast on the use of psilocybin, a naturally occurring chemical found in certain types of mushrooms, Lavasani became part of a movement she never intended to join.
“People are coming out of the psychedelic closet now, but it’s a risk you’re taking,” she says. “There is a stigma to it.”
Supported by a growing body of research and a growing acceptance of cannabis for recreation and medicine, psychedelics are experiencing a renaissance as voters and lawmakers rethink the so-called war on drugs.
When voters in Washington, DC passed Measure 81 on November 3, their counterparts in Oregon approved a voting initiative to legalize the use of psychedelic mushrooms in therapeutic settings. The Canadian Minister of Health recently authorized four terminally ill patients to use psilocybin to treat end-of-life anxiety.
In California, State Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said last week that he would introduce a bill next year to decriminalize psychedelics. In New Jersey, lawmakers on Thursday amended a cannabis bill to include language that will reduce penalties for possessing an ounce of mushroom.
The cities of Oakland, California, and Denver each passed resolutions in 2019 decriminalizing fungi.
Wiener said he was encouraged by developments in the country and was discussing with experts what form his proposal should take, the Associated Press reported. He said he was leaning towards Oregon’s supervised use approach while allowing the use of synthetic psychedelics such as LSD.
Wiener, who said he doesn’t take psychedelics himself, noted cultures around the world have been using them since the dawn of time.
“Any substance can be harmful, so I’m not suggesting anything looks like nirvana,” he said. “But we do know that psychedelics can be used safely. We know they appear to have important medicinal uses. “
For Lavasani, the mushrooms turned out to be a revelation.
After delivering a healthy baby in 2017, Lavasani, the district energy and environment department’s budget manager, began hearing voices and experiencing panic attacks. She gradually spent less time with her husband and children. She eventually feared suicide.
Worried, a friend recommended listening to an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast featuring mycologist Paul Stamets, which touted the benefits of mushrooms. Looking back, Lavasani calls it his “Hail Mary” moment.
“It blew me away a bit,” she says. “I try to keep my life as natural as possible. I eat well, try not to use too many chemicals at home. It made sense to me.
Lavasani and her husband scoured the internet for tutorials on how to grow the mushroom at home. They dedicated the top shelf of their bedroom closet to the experiment and experimented with trial and error before the mushrooms bloomed.
At first Lavasani, who had never used psychedelics before, only took tiny doses, or microdoses, of the mushrooms. She said it was like ‘waking up after a good night’s sleep’.
As Lavasani grew more comfortable with mushrooms, she decided to experiment with ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea often ingested during shamanic rituals. She attended a few guided ceremonies and came home with a new perspective.
“Our health care system does not have solutions to mental health problems,” she says. “I think people are tired of being prescribed drugs that don’t work.”
Therapeutic hallucinogens have been studied in the United States since the discovery of LSD in the 1940s. But research stalled when psychedelics became illegal in the 1960s. Interest has renewed over the past 20 years as institutions around the world, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have received regulatory approval to initiate research in the field.
Medical associations seem broadly united in supporting more psychedelic studies and therapies. The American Psychiatric Association opposed Oregon’s measure, but only because psilocybin has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and requires more scientific understanding.
Yet advocates and researchers have begun to recommend mushrooms, ketamine, a prescription pain reliever and sedative, and MDMA, sometimes referred to by its street name Ecstasy, to treat a host of mental health conditions, including depression. , PTSD and anxiety.
In a recent study by Johns Hopkins, researchers found that psilocybin, the active ingredient found in mushrooms, combined with psychotherapy was more effective at treating major depressive disorders than traditional antidepressants.
Study participants received two doses of psilocybin weeks apart between August 2017 and April 2019. The doses were administered in a comfortable, supervised setting with facilitators ready to offer physical or emotional assistance if needed. Each treatment, which included supportive psychotherapy, lasted around 11 hours with the participants lying on a sofa, wearing sunglasses and listening to music through headphones.
“The magnitude of the effect we found was about four times greater than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market,” said Alan Davis, study co-author and member of the Johns Hopkins Faculty of Medicine. “Since most other treatments for depression take weeks or months to work and can have side effects, this could be a game-changer if these results hold up in future placebo-controlled clinical trials.
In another Johns Hopkins study, patients were given synthetic psilocybin to help fight cancer-related depression and anxiety. Eighty percent said their symptoms went away and the effects lasted for six months.
Dr Evan Wood, an addiction specialist at the University of British Columbia, said psychedelic therapy is radical because it aims to cure disorders, not just manage them.
“If you look at the drugs that are available for treating mental health disorders, a number of them are very addictive, others have nasty side effects,” he said. “These therapies are not about symptom management – it’s about approaching the disorders with curative intent.”
The recent Johns Hopkins research comes less than two years after the FDA approved a nasal spray containing ketamine for treatment-resistant depression.
Jackie Stang, a Southern California resident and co-founder of Delic Corp., a wellness company focused on de-stigmatizing psychedelics, has been using doctor-prescribed ketamine for the past year to treat her anxiety and depression. Combined with psychotherapy, ketamine did more for her in a year than a lifetime of traditional medicine.
“It takes the monster of doubt off your shoulder and puts it in the closet,” she said.
Psychedelic clinics started popping up across the country after the FDA approved ketamine nasal spray. Field Trip Health, a Toronto-based company, has three sites in the United States where patients can combine talk therapy with medication.
The experience is more like a luxury spa than the raves and nightclubs often associated with ketamine, according to Ronan Levy, co-founder and executive chairman of Field Trip. He credits the cannabis industry with the emergence of a legal psychedelic market driven by science, not activism.
“Supportive therapy is as important as the medication,” he says. “This is where the magic happens.”
Kevin Matthews, the driving force behind Denver’s decriminalization effort, described a “fog lifting” when he began using psilocybin to treat his depression. The former West Point caddy was forced out of the academy in 2008, a year before he graduated, as his mental health collapsed.
He turned to mushrooms first for pleasure, then for well-being. Eventually, he weaned himself off sleeping pills and antidepressants. He recalls his initial experience with psilocybin as “happy” but difficult. He cried, but he also “came to life,” a feeling that had been erased when he took traditional pharmaceuticals.
“Drugs are currently winning the war on drugs,” he said. “Prepare to see a lot more.”
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