‘Decriminalise magic mushrooms’
The prohibition on psilocybin is an infringement on the right to privacy, pensioner argues
A79-year-old Cape Town astrologer has asked the Pretoria high court to legalise psilocybin, known as magic mushrooms. Monica Cromhout argues in her founding affidavit that psilocybin opens mental doors and pathways to psychological healing — and carries less risk than activities such as consuming alcohol, playing rugby or surfing big waves.
She is asking the court to declare the inclusion of “psilocybin” and “psilocin” in the Drugs and Drugs Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 unconstitutional and invalid.
She also asks that sections of the Medicines Act be struck down to the extent that these criminalise acquiring, possessing, selling and administering psilocybin.
Cromhout recounts that she only discovered psilocin when “I was already a pensioner” after the death of her husband plunged her into depression. She said after feeling the profound benefits, she decided to help other adults to try the mystical experience in a safe environment.
It led to her arrest in 2014 on charges of drug dealing.
“I have had to appear in the criminal courts related to the pending charges on four occasions,” Cromhout writes.
The charges were stayed to allow her to launch a constitutional challenge, which she did in the Western Cape high court in 2016. That application stalled after she became ill with breast cancer and underwent prolonged treatment.
The current application was filed this month and she notes that the criminal charges remain pending and will be pursued if she proves unsuccessful.
Her constitutional attack relies largely on Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others vs Prince and Others, the socalled Prince III judgment, in which the constitutional court decriminalised the private consumption and cultivation of cannabis in 2018.
In a unanimous ruling, the court found that the ban on possession, use or cultivation of cannabis by an adult for personal consumption in private was invalid because it infringed on the right to privacy guaranteed in section 14 of the Constitution. The infringement did not pass the justification test in section 36.
The judgment was written by then deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, who invoked earlier rulings where the court stressed that privacy was intrinsic to dignity and that every individual was entitled to this sphere of intimacy and autonomy.
“I am of the view that the prohibition of the performance of any activity in connection with the cultivation of cannabis by an adult in private for his or her personal consumption in private is inconsistent with the right to privacy entrenched in the Constitution and is constitutionally invalid,” he wrote.
Cromhout argues that the prohibition of psilocin infringes on the right to privacy in the same manner that the law on cannabis did in the past.
It is moreover irrational, she argues, because the impugned provisions are underpinned by factually incorrect assumptions, including that it is habit-forming and carries risks that could outweigh the benefits.
Cromhout denies that taking psychotropic mushrooms has any harmful effects and says it is a travesty that it carries the same legal classification as heroin.
Her application is supported by an expert report by David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London, and the director of the college’s Centre for Psychedelic Research.
Nutt, who used to be the head of the UK’S Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, has long been advocating the legalisation of psychedelics in the UK.
While he has not been successful there, the British press has suggested his advice might have played a role in Australia’s decision to legalise psychedelic therapy last year, allowing pharmacists to dispense psilocybin for depression and post-traumatic stress.
He attests that psilocybin is not habit-forming in humans or animals, in stark contrast to drugs such as heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, and that mushrooms have been used for their transcendent psychedelic properties by cultures ranging from the Ancient Greeks to Indians, Aztec and Incas.
“There is good evidence from rock carvings of psychedelic mushroom use in Africa over 10000 years ago,” he says.
Nutt estimates that today about a million people use psilocybin in the UK every year, and says that not only does it not cause withdrawal symptoms, but there is no risk of, or evidence, of overdose.
In his submission, he says research at the Imperial College found that psilocybin significantly decreased depression and anxiety by altering patterns within the brain and could be a viable alternative to conventional antidepressants.
“Psilocybin is a precursor to the active ingredient psilocin that is released when psilocybin is broken down in the body. Psilocin acts on a certain type of serotonin receptor in the brain (the 5-HT2A receptor) that is involved in the regulation of mood and other aspects of consciousness,” he writes.
This induces a short-lived change in consciousness or psychedelic experience.
“Psilocybin can elevate mood during the ‘trip’ and this can endure for weeks or months. In our depression study many patients stayed in recovery and free of depression for months after a single 25mg dose.”
He refers to academic studies in England and America that concluded psilocybin has the potential to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, as well as substance-abuse disorders, including alcohol and cocaine addiction.
In the course of his own research in 2012, later published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Nutt says magnetic resonance imaging indicated that psilocybin appears to increase the brain’s neuroplasticity, in other words the ability of neural pathways to shift and rewire.
This makes it easier to break established negative habits.
It is “ironic”, Cromhout says, given that psilocybin is classified in South Africa as “dependence producing”.
She became intrigued by psychotropics after reading a book about a plant tincture used in Amazonian shamanic cultures called ayahuasca.
“Having read about a certain tincture, ayahuasca, I decided to try it.
I yearned to find God, and I needed also to find a way out of my grief after the death of my husband almost three years earlier.
“I had never used addictive or illegal drugs, nor even tobacco or alcohol. So, this was a significant decision for me. I was 62 years old at the time.”
In 2008, she joined a course by a visiting Peruvian shaman and attended four ayahuasca ceremonies. She described these as life-changing and said her depression lifted.
The following year, she tried psilocybin.
“In some ways, it was like my experience with ayahuasca — but even more personally unifying, profound, informative and transformative.”
She likens it to wakeful dreaming and believes it provides the courage to face emotional pain and suppressed trauma which would otherwise “do more harm if it remained hidden”.
“I emphasise that I not only felt that my first psilocybin experience healed my psyche but I also regard it as the deepest religious/spiritual experience that I have ever had.”
The second applicant is journalist Melinda Ferguson, who published a book about overcoming a nine-year addiction to hard drugs, and who struggled with severe depression and anxiety years later after a near-fatal car crash.
Ferguson says conventional psychiatric medication left her feeling debilitated and recounts trying psilocybin under Cromhout’s guidance nine years ago after a psychiatrist recommended it as an alternative.
“I was able to connect with my true self and take profound steps towards healing the pain and anxiety that had been holding me hostage for all of my life up until then.”
Since then, she has been taking psilocybin about three times a year as a means of treating the underlying trauma that led her to addiction.
“Taking psilocybin mushrooms is not part of any relapse in my life-long battle against addiction. Quite the opposite, psilocybin is an antidote for addiction,” she says.
“The route of addiction is about avoiding internal feelings, thoughts, problems and trauma. Alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine are the vehicles to escape.
“Psilocybin is fundamentally different, because it is not a substance used to escape those internal feelings, thoughts, problems and trauma. Psilocybin is a unique method of confronting them.”
Ferguson said continued criminalisation, and the prosecution of someone like Cromhout, robbed those who wished to try psilocybin of the opportunity to do so safely and created the risk of people turning to dealers who might lace mushrooms with other drugs.
“She is a caring and kind elderly lady who merely wishes to empower other people who take an adult decision to try psilocybin and ensure that they can do so safely.”
Ferguson and Cromhout are represented by Paul-michael Keichel of Cullinan & Associates law firm.
Keichel said though the application might seem novel, it in fact envisions only a very modest development of the law and one fully consistent with Prince III.
The first respondent is the minister of justice, followed by those for health and policing. The respondents have not yet indicated whether they will oppose the application.
‘My first psilocybin experience healed my psyche […] I regard it as the deepest religious/ spiritual experience
I’ve ever had’