Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1503864
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 JULY 2023 NEWS Turn on, tune in, legalise: Could psychedelics be next in line for legalisation? MATTHEW FARRUGIA PSYCHEDELIC drugs could become 'the new cannabis' amid increasing calls around the world to destigmatize and legalise substances such as magic mushrooms for medical and recreational use. This, according to senior pol- icy analyst, Steve Rolles, is due to certain similarities between cannabis and certain psyche- delics. Psychedelics, while still having their own risks, are on the lower end of the risk spec- trum, he said. Rolles is a senior drug policy analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation in the UK and a frequent participant in the public discussion of drug law and policy. Sitting down with MaltaToday, Rolles spoke about the recent rise in accept- ance of psychedelic drugs, after global moral panic following their association with the hip- pie movement in the United States in the 1960s. Rolles was in Malta to partic- ipate in a thematic roundtable focussed on decriminalisation, social justice and sustainable development organised by the Authority for the Responsible Use of Canabis, the Maltese regulator of the cannabis sector. Psychedelics have been used for millennia Indigenous societies have long utilized psychedelic sub- stances such as peyote and psilocybin mushrooms in var- ious rituals and spiritual prac- tices for centuries. During the 1960s, psychedelics gained sig- nificant popularity and accept- ance within the counterculture movement. Due to legal restrictions, re- search on psychedelics faced significant challenges, result- ing in most studies being dis- continued by the mid-1970s. In light of recent promising find- ings, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression as a breakthrough therapy. Consequently, several cities and countries now permit the use of psychedelic drugs for therapeutic or spiritual pur- poses. "In the UK, magic mush- rooms were legal from 2003 to 2005, and there was an open market in magic mushrooms. It wasn't even regulated at all. Nothing really bad happened," explained Rolles. In fact, he noted, a noticeable amount of drug users shifted from some illegal drugs, to magic mush- rooms, a trend which Rolles sees as positive, due to the sub- stance being safer than drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Rolles said that during this brief period in the UK where prohibition of the drug was lifted, they weren't associated with significant public health harms, and so, "it seems like a natural next step". "I'm not pro magic mushroom use, I'm just being pragmatic," Rolles clarified. But could we be moving from the 1960s counter-culture era phrase 'Turn on, tune in, drop out' to 'turn on, tune in, legal- ise'? Legalisation to end the war on drugs Beyond magic mushrooms and other psychedelic sub- stances, Rolles acknowledged that while, the legalisation of drugs is "a difficult debate," it is one of the few long-term solutions for tackling drug traf- fickers and the violence which is brought about by organised crime. This however, according to Rolles is only possible if low- er risk drugs, such as cannabis and psychedelics are first to be legalised, and should only be legalised in a cautious and re- sponsible manner. "Colorado and Oregon have legalised magic mushrooms in a similar way that Malta has legalised cannabis, in that you can grow your own mush- rooms," he said. Key to the success of ending the war on drugs, according to Rolles, is discarding the men- Steve Rolles