UK: Psychiatrists Send Letter To Royal College Of Psychiatrists To Reschedule Psilocybin

A group of 15 top psychiatrists are addressing the Royal College of Psychiatrists’s president Dr. Adrian James to back the campaign calling for the nation’s Home Office department to move psilocybin from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2, which would remove "unnecessary and burdensome restrictions on clinical research efforts with the compound."

The document, led by professor David Nutt of the independent research agency DrugScience, is the latest move belonging to the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group (CDPRG) #PsilocybinAccessRights campaign.

Besides Nutt, other signers were prof. Allan H. Young, Dr. James Rucker, Dr. Ben Sessa, Dr. Hubertus Himmerich, Dr. Graham Campbell, Dr. Jonny Martell, prof. R. Hamish McAllister-Williams, Dr. David Erritzoe, Dr. Oliver Bashford, Dr. Michael Bloomfield, Dr. Matthew Hoskins, Dr. Camilla Day, prof. Antony Cleare and Dr. Tim M Williams. 

The letter states that the “scheduling of psilocybin has never been reviewed since the 1971 Act was implemented” and that “there is now reasonable evidence supporting its further exploration for therapeutic potential.” 

The proposed rescheduling of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 is to be made with restrictions mitigating inappropriate prescribing, "so that patients may benefit from a more efficient and streamlined process of research."

That is, the growing campaign aims to reschedule psilocybin in the UK so that research may expand in authorized clinical trials and research, prior to any product approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). 

This step would allow further institutions to undertake clinical trials and related research with this compound, with psilocybin being treated as any other Schedule 2 drug (such as morphine), with the exception that it would not be prescribed outside MHRA authorized research and therefore not compromising security and safety. 

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ reply is expected to come in the following days.

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