Legalising magic mushrooms to facilitate healing inner journeys
Decriminalising psilocybin could help improve the lives of those who suffer from depression. By
Ayear ago, I listened to journalist Glynis Horning talk on the radio about her book Waterboy: Making Sense of My Son’s Suicide. At the time, I was investigating the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin (the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) in a personal capacity. I wondered whether perhaps it might have had a positive impact on this young man’s depression and possibly have saved his life, given that studies at Johns Hopkins University into psilocybin suggest that accompanied by supportive psychotherapy and “under controlled conditions, [psilocybin] can lead to significant and durable improvements in depression”.
In my readings and conversations with those for whom no amount of “chimney sweeping” (talk therapy) or big pharma conjurings could shift their depression, it was experiences with ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA that seemed to reach those dark corners and bring about healing – possibly because so much trauma happens preverbally.
Interest in and usage of psilocybin is spreading like threads of underground mycelium. This has been aided by the books and movies of the author and self-described “reluctant psychonaut” Michael Pollan and his personal journey with psychedelics, and the mushroom-hatted mycologist advocate of medicinal fungi and mycoremediation Paul Stamets. A new vocabulary has mushroomed, and individuals are earnestly sharing written accounts of their life-changing journeys using entheogens (psychoactive substances used in ritual).
A new vocabulary had mushroomed, and individuals
are earnestly sharing written accounts of their life-changing journeys using entheogens (psychoactive substances used in ritual)
Twenty years ago, Portugal (often incorrectly regarded as the first country to do so), Belgium, Estonia, Australia, Mexico, Uruguay and the Netherlands were the first countries to use a counterintuitive approach by decriminalising drugs. Portugal still has the lowest drug problem in Europe. However, it must be recognised that the decriminalisation was “part of a wider reorientation of policy towards a health-led approach”, including harm reduction and treatment services.
Decriminalising psychedelics
Last year, the UN member states set targets on the decriminalisation of drug possession for personal use, and on the elimination of discrimination against those who use drugs. South Africa “recognises that the punitive approach has not been successful in tackling drug-related problems”.
For the past four years, the use of cannabis in a recreational role, restricted to personal settings for adults, has been legal in
South Africa. Non-compliance with the restrictions carries a sentence of 25 years.
While cannabis has been legalised, subject to certain conditions, a group of individuals including Shelly Faulds, attorneys Nardus Grove, Paul-Michael Keichel (one of those who helped to legalise cannabis in South Africa, citing that its criminalisation was unconstitutional) and Johan Bester want psilocybin to be decriminalised. In other words, while these substances are still prohibited, partakers won’t be prosecuted.
For many, psychedelic drugs are regarded as different from other drugs. Rather than being used for recreation, their role is seen as being in the service of a therapeutic or spiritual goal. According to an article by Keichel, the Constitutional Court has acknowledged cannabis to be safer than alcohol and tobacco, and entheogens are even safer than cannabis, unless you have a severe mental illness.
There’s a sense that the use of psilocybin, whether for “shits and giggles” or therapeutic or spiritual use, will continue to take place whether or not it is decriminalised.
For this group, however, the push for the decriminalisation of psilocybin is in direct relation to ensuring the reduction in harm for those who “journey” and the acknowledgement of the rights of indigenous people in keeping with their cultural belief systems.
In March last year, Faulds and her husband were arrested for illegal drug trafficking. Faulds intends to push ahead to tender an application to the high court for the decriminalisation of psilocybin. The “key objective for decriminalisation is to end the punishment and stigmatisation of people who use drugs”. It is believed that decriminalisation will also reinstate the constitutional rights of indigenous people who have been compromised, implement safety protocols for those who take it and provide some control over the quality of psilocybin.
Facilitating a magical journey
Traditionally, Faulds explains, “plant teachers” or entheogens were administered by shamans or traditional healers, who knew all the villagers well and were cognisant of their mental and physical constitutions so that they were able to effectively administer an appropriate plant sacrament. This is in stark contrast to the current idea of “everybody’s journey to their own adventure”, which Faulds considers to be a complete “abdication of responsibility” by facilitators.
Pollan talks about set and setting, or intention and place, being important, but there are factors such as pre-integration before the journey and post-integration afterwards that are equally important. Faulds believes that journey facilitators “need to have an understanding of the person’s experience during the session”.
In the pre-integration stage, the facilitator must consider the journeyer’s physical and mental states. This includes taking into account the condition of the journeyer’s heart – as the heart rate may be elevated during a journey, which may pose risks for someone with a pacemaker. Another aspect to factor in is whether the journeyer is taking anxiety or depression medication and if so, what kind, as these can create resistance.
Of relevance are a journeyer’s mindset and psychological stability, such as whether a journeyer has had psychotic episodes, which may manifest during a session.
“It would be better to limit the number of journeyers for safety purposes so that if a journeyer is emotionally triggered there are a sufficient number of facilitators for oneon-one assistance,” she says. She believes facilitators “must ensure ... no one has been subjected to peer pressure”.
Faulds reasons that “post-integration after a psychedelic mystical experience may not be necessary for everyone, but must be offered. A mystical experience differs markedly from an ordinary state of consciousness.”
Faulds says that shamanic traditions regard psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms with reverence as a “sacrament”. The taking of all entheogens, she reiterates, was always done with “humility, reverence and respect”.