On the morning of November 4, in the early fog of what turned out to be a slow-trickle election count, there was one undisputed winner: psilocybin. In Washington D..C, a ballot measure downshifted psychedelic substances like psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound that gives certain mushrooms their magic, to the lowest-level priority for prosecutions; in Oregon, there was a broader decriminalization effort along with a measure that paves the way for legal psilocybin treatment—a first at the statewide level. 

On top of all of that, a new Johns Hopkins study showed that two therapeutic doses of psilocybin managed to ease major depression and put a majority of cases into remission for as long as a month.

Over the last several years, a once-fringe interest in psychedelics has come to the cultural fore, as microdosing took off in tech communities, and the whole-foods champion and “reluctant psychonaut” Michael Pollan published How to Change Your Mind. “The drugs foster new perspectives on old problems,” Pollan said of psychedelics in a 2018 interview—and with all the old problems exacerbated this year, last week's rush of good news seemed to promise good things for the future.

To some, the developments—coupled with cannabis legalization in New Jersey and Arizona—was more than mere progress. As one viral tweet put it on Wednesday, “congrats to drugs winning the war on drugs btw, underappreciated result.”

“This is a new model in terms of psychiatry,” Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher and a professor in the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said by phone on Thursday. Unlike other treatments for depression—often involving trial-and-error rounds of medication and not-infrequent side effects—the study’s two sessions with psilocybin had the air of a quick fix. (A subsequent paper will track lingering depression relief out to a year.)

“Frankly, it looks more like an orthopedic surgical manipulation,” said Griffiths, who has been studying psychedelics for the past two decades. “You go in, you replace a hip and establish functioning, and you expect the person to be enduringly better, if it works.” Based on a 2016 study, which studied cancer patients experiencing attendant anxiety and depression, Griffiths even posits that a single therapeutic might prove effective. (It’s important to note that researchers carefully screen study participants, prepare them, and support them during and after the five-hour sessions; people with certain psychiatric vulnerabilities, including family history of schizophrenia, are excluded.) 

The implications are far-reaching. “A broad swath of society, like 20 percent of the U.S. population, has had a diagnosis of major depressive disorder at one time during their lifetime; 10 percent each year,” said Griffiths, who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, a key research hub established in 2019.

As the isolation, illness, and economic worry that have defined 2020 continue, this psilocybin news is especially promising: the possibility of a mind-opening escape when so many feel trapped. “Most of our studies came to a screeching halt with COVID,” Griffiths said, but an investigation of psilocybin’s effects on anorexia nervosa is once again underway; other groups are studying its interplay with addiction issues, Alzheimer’s-related cognitive impairment, and obsessive compulsive disorder. The FDA has taken a keen interest, twice extending Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin therapeutics geared toward depression; those two teams are currently seeking approval for Phase III registration trials. 

It’s quite the turnaround for a class of drugs maligned and outcast in the age of Nixon, who called Timothy Leary “the most dangerous man in America.” “I can’t think of any other area of science in which something that was really potentially promising was ground to a full stop for decades,” said Griffiths. Now with research percolating across the country, psychedelics are finding a broad base of support, from veterans looking for relief from post-traumatic stress disorder to business giants. The philanthropic donors to the Johns Hopkins research center comprise Blake Mycoskie (the Toms shoes founder turned wellness entrepreneur), Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg, entrepreneur and podcaster Tim Ferriss, and investor Craig Nerenberg, along with the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation. Meanwhile, Dr. Bronner’s, the Ur-hippie soap brand, has been expanding its do-good mission to support the psychedelic movement. 

“For me, it was always like, How do we translate my grandad’s passion for uniting Spaceship Earth?” David Bronner, the company’s CEO (formally known as the Cosmic Engagement Officer), said in a call on Friday from California. Bronner, who sits on the board of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, recalls meeting founder and executive director Rick Doblin at Burning Man in 2005. “The way he’s working the FDA, he’s kind of like Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Death Star, just working the system and moving MDMA through the FDA approval process,” said Bronner. (Doblin's group is set to begin Phase III trials for its study using MDMA—the drug recreationally known as ecstasy—to treat PTSD.)

In addition to an ongoing pledge to give the group $1 million per year over a decade, Dr. Bronner’s supported various efforts around psychedelics in 2020. The company donated $2 million to help advance Oregon’s psilocybin therapy measure; another $500,000 supported the Decriminalize Nature DC campaign, with additional funds going to the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative and nonprofits seeking treatment solutions for veterans. More visibly, the company unveiled new limited-edition packaging this fall that shouts "HEAL SOUL!” The characteristically text-heavy label quotes Pollan on the power of psychedelics in untangling self-destructive patterns of thinking. There are also blurbs about everything from the FDA and end-of-life anxiety to the “proper setting and integration” for a good trip. 

Even with big-box stores like Walmart and Target, “we had not one complaint, not one,” said Bronner, who sees a growing bipartisan support for psychedelics. “My brother, Mike Bronner, is company president, and he likes to say that our goal is to communicate in a way that my mom’s church group could receive. We just want this to be a very mainstream, rational conversation, centering healing and therapy.”

"HEAL SOUL!" after all isn't so different from Joe Biden's promise to "restore the soul of our nation." The president-elect puts his faith in science, as seen in his appointed team of COVID-19 advisers—but it might be too soon to assume psychedelics might be similarly embraced.

 “I think we need to be really cautious about not overplaying this,” Griffiths said near the end of our call, tapping on the brakes when it comes to speedy drug approvals and fast-tracked legalization. “There are very rigorous standards, and we’re going through this debate with the vaccine. There are those in our culture who want to rush ahead.”

Still, the way that the scientists and lay proponents describe the therapeutic trip has undeniable appeal. “Where the deep mystery comes about is that there’s something about these drugs and these experiences that speaks directly to the core sense of [ourselves as] conscious human beings,” Griffiths said, describing a kind of astonishment and a shift in worldview and in one's concept of self—which might explain the treatment potential across such a range of conditions. Loosened from old, hardened narratives, “there’s an opportunity for major life transformation,” he said, without a trace of hyperbole in his voice. At that point, as Pollan explains on the Dr. Bronner’s label, people “may actually be able to write some new stories about themselves.” 

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