My Mushroom Problem

We need better therapies for depression and addiction. But are hallucinogens really the answer?

- Dr. Gregory Scott Brown

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD about all the ways that shrooms (or, more specifically, their active hallucinogenic compound, psilocybin) are mental-health cure-alls. Depression, PTSD, addiction: you name it and some wellness guru has likely told you that the right kind of mushroom can fix it.

It sounds exciting, but I've been skeptical, since I've seen a lot of promising yet fleeting therapies, especially for issues where conventional drugs don't work that well. But then I thought, Maybe this is the moment we need. With the mental-health fallout from the pandemic and concerns that suicide rates will rise, could a mystical, psychedelic experience truly bring people some much-needed relief?

I called up someone who knows more about it than almost anyone else: Dr. Matthew Johnson at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, where psilocybin is administered legally in research studies. Then I talked to Dr. Rick Doblin, founder of the leading organisation for psychedelic studies in Oregon. It solidified a few things for me and opened my mind (with a chat, not shrooms) about others.

PSILOCYBIN CAN BRING ON BREAKTHROUGHS IN THERAPY. BUT SO CAN TALKING.