Arizona is taking the first steps to possibly legalize medicinal use of certain psychedelic mushrooms — specifically psiloocybin — at least for some people.
It won’t make Arizona into Colorado or Oregon. And whatever happens will take years.
But officials at the Arizona Department of Health Services have published a notice that they will accept applications to conduct clinical trials on the efficacy of psilocybin whole mushrooms to treat various conditions, disorders and diseases.
They’re not doing this on their own. A law approved earlier this year by the Arizona Legislature specifically mandates the study to see whether the drugs in the mushrooms, which have been called “magic mushrooms,” can help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The study won’t be limited to that, however.
Health officials also want to find out whether the mushrooms and various other substances in them also can be effective in helping those with everything from eating disorders and substance abuse issues, to depression, to symptoms associated with long COVID.
Lawmakers set aside $5 million in the state budget for the research.
Even if the research results are promising, don’t look for the mushrooms to be available the way they are now in Oregon and Colorado. Voters in those states decriminalized their use for adults, though officially, the mushrooms are supposed to be used at “healing centers’’ where patients are under the guidance of certified facilitators.
While Arizona lawmakers approved the research and funding, they put something else into the law: Use of the mushrooms would not be allowed unless the federal government also approves them as a prescription drug. That has not yet occurred, although a private company is doing trials of MDMA, a synthetic form of the drug.
Still, having the state start its own clinical trials and research could give Arizona a jump on being ready to make the drug available to patients here if the FDA gives the go-ahead.
A vendor bags psilocybin mushrooms at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles.
Former UA doctor’s role
The legislation came from Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, who said he was concerned about issues affecting veterans and law enforcement officers.
The big push appears to have come from Dr. Suzanne Sisley. If that name seems familiar, it’s because Sisley has for years been at the forefront of pushing for research into the medical use of marijuana, specifically for PTSD.
Sisley was a doctor and researcher at the University of Arizona who got permission from the federal Public Health Service to do research on campus about whether marijuana could be useful to treat symptoms of the disorder. Shortly after, the school terminated her employment in three separate positions, a move she blamed on political pressure from some state lawmakers.
She now is president of the Scottsdale Research Institute, where she not only has conducted investigations into marijuana but also has a license from the FDA to grow psilocybin mushrooms for research. That means she is likely to be the source of the mushrooms that any researchers getting state contracts will need.
Sisley also hopes to be one of those who gets a grant.
That will be decided by a new Psilocybin Research Advisory Council also created in the 2023 legislative session. Along with Jennie Cunico, the state health director, the panel will include a physician who has a federal license to study psychedelics, a military veteran, a law enforcement officer, and a professor or researcher from one of the state’s three public universities who specializes in clinical research or psychedelic studies.
Names of the members have not yet been made public. The panel’s recommendations are due by Feb. 1.
First study of its kind
Sisley told Capitol Media Services that Arizona’s decision is significant because its study would become the first in the nation about the effects of psilocybin whole mushrooms, versus work underway about MDMA, the name for the synthetic version of the drug.
“There’s no question but that natural mushrooms are going to perform different than synthetic psilocybin,’’ she said.
“It’s a hyper-concentrated molecule,’’ Sisley explained of synthetics. “So you get, potentially, maybe more efficacy but also more side effects when you concentrate something.’’
Personal preference also comes into play. “A lot of people just prefer taking the natural material,’’ she said. “They believe that nature’s already provided what you need. And they don’t like synthetic stuff.’’
The research is needed all the more, Sisley said, because “you and I already know there’s people taking this mushroom, regardless of what the law is.”
For the moment, evidence is largely anecdotal. That was on display earlier this year at Arizona legislative hearings.
Robert Steele, a former Pinal County sheriff’s deputy and Marine Corps combat veteran, told lawmakers that PTSD and the effects of traumatic brain injuries left him suicidal, unable to work and nearly destroyed his family life.
He said he turned to mushrooms “out of sheer desperation’’ to get relief and the effects were “profound.’’
“This medicine has restored my relationships, brought me closer with my wife and children and allowed me to have a life worth living again,’’ Steele said.
‘Not to be played with’
Sisley said it’s best to do the research first versus having a voter-approved initiative to legalize the drug and then figure out how to deal with it.
“This is a mushroom that’s incredibly potent and is not to be played with,’’ she said.
“There’s plenty of cautionary tales of people who use them improperly, without the correct setting, without the correct preparatory work and integration afterwards and have had really bad outcomes with it,’’ Sisley said. “People are left with residual terrors that they’re not able to properly integrate.’’
Americans got a sense of that just last month when an off-duty pilot, flying in the “jump seat’’ in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight, tried to shut off the engines, according to authorities. He would later tell investigators he had taken “magic mushrooms’’ 48 hours earlier and was distressed by the death of his best friend.
One of the requirements of the Arizona law is that the research won’t be done on just anyone. It specifically requires the trials to use veterans, first responders, frontline healthcare workers and people from underserved communities.
Sisley figures it will take one year to get the necessary approvals from various federal agencies.
“So if they launch those studies a year later, it’s going to take them a year to complete the trials, to get the data published, another six months to get through peer review,” she said.
Then, “The outcome of these studies will help lawmakers determine what is the potential for natural psilocybin mushrooms to be a medicine.”
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