Australia becomes first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines

This was the headline in February 3rd's Sydney Morning Herald as they noted: "Australia has become the first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines, after the Therapeutic Goods Administration took researchers by surprise and approved the psychedelic substances in magic mushrooms and MDMA for use by people with certain mental health conditions." The news was taken up round the world, for example in the Guardian's article Australia to allow prescription of MDMA and psilocybin for treatment-resistant mental illnesses and probably particularly usefully see the analysis in Psychedelic Alpha's piece which comments: "In a surprising move, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has announced that it will permit the prescribing of MDMA and Psilocybin from the 1^st of July. The change comes via a rescheduling of medicines containing the drugs from Schedule 9 (‘Prohibited Substance’) to Schedule 8 (‘Controlled Drug’). Importantly, prescriptions may only be written by certain psychiatrists, for patients suffering from two specific conditions. The two indications for which psychiatrists will be able to prescribe these two psychedelics align with the most mature clinical research for each: MDMA for PTSD and Psilocybin (or, “Psilocybine”, in TGA parlance) for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). If “sufficient new evidence” emerges regarding the efficacy and safety of these two drugs in other conditions, the agency will consider applications to make further amendments. Meanwhile, only “specifically authorised psychiatrists” can prescribe such treatments, meaning those approved under the Authorised Prescriber Scheme. These psychiatrists must also obtain approval to use these two drugs from a human research ethics committee."

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