Australia is the first country to legalize hallucinogenic drugs.

Australia has become the first country in the world to legalize the use of psychoactive substances. Psychiatrists will now be able to prescribe methylenethioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as ecstasy, and silosibine, the main psychoactive component of magic mushrooms, to treat certain mental disorders. According to a press release issued in February this year, beginning July 1 this year, psychiatrists will be able to use MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and silosibine to treat treatment-resistant depression.

The use of these substances outside of medical purposes, however, remains illegal in Australia. According to the Australian Medicines Regulatory Authority, Silosibine and MDMA are relatively safe when used in a medically controlled environment under the supervision of medical professionals and adhering to doses studied in clinical trials. However, some psychiatrists and researchers have expressed concerns that the decision may be premature, as the substances are still in clinical trials and have not received official approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical use in the treatment of mental disorders.

Although Australia has become the first country to regulate the medical use of MDMA and silosibine, it is not the only one to step into a new era of drug therapy. Last May, the Oregon Health Authority, US, licensed the first silosibine provider in the state, becoming the first state in the US to legalize the personal use of silosibine for those over the age of 21.

In October 2022, Alberta became the first province in Canada to regulate psychoactive substances.

Defenders of psychoactive substances such as MDMA, silosibine and ketamine hope they can treat a wide range of mental illnesses, including addiction, cancer-related anxiety and excessive appetite, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Celia Morgan, a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Exeter in the UK, explains that the exact mechanism of action of these psychoactive substances to improve mental health is not fully understood, but they are thought to affect brain plasticity and learning ability. Research is ongoing, and clinical trials of MDMA as a therapeutic drug for patients with severe PTSD have already seen some positive results. One paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022 found that a dosage of 25 milligrams of synthetic silosibine reduced depression scores for three weeks in 233 participants, but the effect disappeared after about three months.

According to new regulation in Australia, the use of psychoactive substances will be restricted. A psychiatrist must obtain ethics committee approval and official authorization from the Medicines Regulatory Authority to prescribe these substances. However, according to Dr. Colleen Lu, a clinical psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, the new rules leave "much uncertainty about how to assess and select patients for treatment, how to provide and monitor treatment. "