Charlotte Nicholls MP on 'a huge mental health crisis'

Last week I led a debate in Parliament about supporting people with mental health conditions by making psilocybin more accessible for research purposes.

Psilocybin is the natural active ingredient in so-called ‘magic’ mushrooms, and growing international evidence suggests that it may potentially have a remarkable impact in treating a variety of conditions including treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa and addiction.

Researchers are reporting impressive results in Australia, Canada and several states in the USA, but nothing is happening in the UK because for over 50 years we have classified psilocybin as riskier and more restricted than we now treat heroin.

This classification has never been reviewed, even though it is non-toxic and considered one of the safest controlled drugs.

It is in a category that makes it prohibitively expensive for universities to conduct research while large pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to do so because it is so widely available in the wild.

Speaking recently to scientists at the Royal Society of Chemistry they emphasised that these difficulties simply prevent study.

This bureaucratic barrier makes no sense when we are facing a huge mental health crisis in the country.

One in four people in the UK experience a mental health problem each year, and many of these such as depression or PTSD take a vast, debilitating toll on the individual as well as costing billions in consequential spending and missed potential.

One hundred and twenty five people a week take their own lives, and yet we are told to accept a 90 per cent failure rate in treatments.

This is not acceptable for the millions of people suffering and would not be permitted if these were physical illnesses.

We should be doing far more to support armed forces veterans, retired emergency workers, and victims of crime whose lives can be a misery trying to cope with trauma while being told that there is no prospect for a successful treatment.

As someone with PTSD I know this only too well. Reclassifying psilocybin for research purposes would cost nothing and would pose no risk as it would not in itself make any change to accessing the ingredient.

What it would give though is hope for a better, healthier and more productive life for millions currently suffering maybe needlessly. The government’s response to my debate was to stall, but I hope that they will end this cruel inactivity and swiftly allow the research to bring hope to millions of us.