Australia approves two psychoactive drugs for med use

Health authorities in Australia on Friday authorized the use of the psychedelic substances MDMA and psilocybin for the treatment of “certain mental health conditions.”

Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the country’s medicines and medical devices regulator, is changing the classifications of the two substances so they can be used “therapeutically in a controlled medical setting.”

Starting on July 1, MDMA, the recreational drug known as ecstasy or molly, and psilocybin, the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms,’ will be listed as schedule 8 substances, or “controlled drugs.”

If used recreationally, both drugs will remain classified under schedule 9, or “prohibited substances,” the TGA said in a news release.

The change in classification means that authorized psychiatrists will soon be allowed to prescribe MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, while psilocybin will be used for patients with “treatment-resistant depression.”

The decision took into account “the current lack of options for patients with specific treatment-resistant mental illnesses,” and it comes after “extensive public consultation, a report from an expert panel, and advice received from the Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling.”

The announcement came as a surprise to some health experts in the country, according to local media reports.

“It was unexpected given that Australia is such a conservative country,” Stephen Bright, the director of the nonprofit Psychedelic Research in Science and Medicine (PRISM) told the Sydney Morning Herald.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, PRISM praised the announcement “as a significant step, both within Australia and in the global context, toward the eventual acceptance of psychedelic therapies by the medical and broader communities alike.”

MDMA was outlawed in the U.S. in July 1995. But for at least a decade before that, the substance had been used in therapy treatments, according to a nonprofit called Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS.

“Australia’s policy change is one that every country should consider: suffering people, regardless of nationality, need more opportunities to access novel treatments,” MAPS founder and director Dr. Rick Doblin said. “We hope that this announcement will encourage more international discussion and collaboration towards access to psychedelic therapies and comprehensive drug policy reform.”

Earlier this year, MAPS announced that a new study confirmed prior positive results on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.

A clinical research program sponsored by MAPS, which began in 1992, is part of an ongoing effort to obtain federal approval for the use of the drug as a therapeutic treatment.

In May 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it anticipated the Food and Drug Administration to approve the use of MDMA for PTSD, and psilocybin for the treatment of depression by 2024.

That announcement came nearly three years after the FDA approved a medication that is closely related to another popular party drug, ketamine, to be prescribed as a fast-acting treatment of depression in adults who don’t benefit from other types of treatment.