Issue Brief Rough Draft

This took me a while and I still haven’t compiled all of the information, but due to a lack of time I’ll just be doing a simpler outline to display my flow of information. I do have sources but they’re better compiled in a much more traditional rough draft style, and in this I’ll just be listing the main ideas of each section.

Introduction:

• Need for psilocybin comes from the current American mental health crisis.
  • Statistics about the U.S. mental health crisis
• Legalization of marijuana in comparison
• Thesis: The United States must take into consideration the growing needs of the public and expedite and fund psilocybin research through NIH grants, immediately decriminalize psilocybin, make therapeutic use of psilocybin legal, and release all those on psilocybin-related charges. To do this, psilocybin must be removed as a Schedule I drug.

History of Psilocybin use:

• Use in Ancient Cultures
  • Examples of different cultures
    • Archaeological evidence
• Modern popularization
  • “Seeking the Magic Mushroom,”
  • Indocybin
  • Harvard Psilocybin Project

Legal History of Psilocybin:

• The War on Drugs:
  • Started with the passing of The Controlled Substances Act (CSA)
  • Nixon’s purported intention vs. John Ehrlichman’s 1994 testimony
• Controlled Substances Act (CSA):
  • Psilocybin legality
  • Scheduled substances via addictiveness and health use
    • Examples from Schedule I and Schedule II
  • Misinformation in Drug Scheduling
    • Addictiveness versus Scheduling
    • Medical use versus Scheduling
• Current Legality by State
  • Legal for medical use and decriminalized: Oregon
  • Other examples of decriminalized
• Federal Funding
  • Johns Hopkins Grant

The Science of Psilocybin:

• Derivation
  • Over 200 species of magic mushrooms
    • different concentrations of psilocybin and psilocin
    • found in many different locations
• Effects
  • Hallucinogens, distorts the users sense of reality and time, can also cause the user to mix up senses
  • Physical effects
  • Risks of Bad Trip
• Safety
  • Clinical, controlled setting
  • Do not use in combination with other drugs, including prescription anti-depressants
  • Non-addictive and no withdrawal
• Neurology
  • Explanation of the different areas of ones brain that psilocybin affects
  • The psilocybin to psilocin signal receptor pathway
    • How it affects the brain’s response
    • Increases brain connectivity

Psilocybin Research in Psychiatry and Neurology:

• An Explanation of Neurosis:
• National and International Research on Psilocybin on Different Mental Illnesses and Neurological Issues:
  • Depression and Anxiety
  • PTSD
  • Autism
    • Helps spark connections in different parts of the brain which have limited communication due to ASD
  • ADHD
  • Alzheimer’s
    • Psilocybin research for Alzheimer’s has a lot of potential to be truly revolutionary
• Federal funding and Programs:
  • Johns Hopkins and the NIH

Psilocybin as an Alternative Treatment:

• Price Comparison of Generic Psychiatric Medications
• Effectiveness of psilocybin versus prescription antidepressants:
  • Psychiatric research of overall effectiveness
• The Overall Downsides to Antidepressants and other Mental Health Drugs:
  • Side Effects, Long term vs. Short Term
• Availability by Age and Condition:

Conclusion: Suggestions for Psilocybin Legalization:

• Provide extensive federal funding for psilocybin research
• Acknowledge America’s mental health crisis and expedite research programs
• Re-classify psilocybin in the CSA
• Decriminalize psilocybin possession and cultivation
• Release all those imprisoned for psilocybin-related charged
• Federally regulate therapeutic uses of psilocybin, and make it widely available and affordable.