Psychedelic drugs are becoming mainstream, with calls for their legalization and more research into their impact and possible use in the treatment of certain mental health conditions such as depression anxiety, and PTSD. Now, scientists are focusing on psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, as a promising treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, as well as tobacco, according to limited early studies. One of the reasons addictions are so hard to treat is that most are more than chemical dependency, with people suffering cravings long after short-term withdrawals have waned, as their brains often divert them back to the familiar territory of their addiction. Some experts say psilocybin addresses this psychological need. Still, it’s uncertain how effective using psilocybin to treat addiction is in the long term and whether some individuals are more likely to benefit than others. Some study participants had troubling experiences during their trips, and experts say that people should not be taking the drug outside of legitimate research studies or without medical supervision, so we should move ahead with caution to evaluate the potential of psychedelics.
Meanwhile, the House has passed a far-reaching bill to legalize marijuana on the federal level, but there is no clear pathway for the legislation to be approved in the Senate. It’s the second go-around in less than two years for the House on the measure, which was approved largely along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans largely against. Known as the MORE Act, it would have decriminalized cannabis, scrapped some old marijuana-related convictions, and allowed states to make their own decisions about marijuana markets—which they are already doing anyway. The bill faltered mainly on the issue of whether the government should provide financial incentives to individuals and communities who were the most harshly impacted by the war on drugs; Republicans, for the most part, say no, while Democrats cast the MORE Act as a criminal-justice initiative. There’s little chance the bill would gather enough support to pass the Senate, and if the Republicans make gains in the midterm elections, the future of the legislation would be further in doubt. Currently, 18 states plus the District of Columbia have, on their own, legalized marijuana, and established robust commercial markets for both recreational and medical cannabis.
And finally, new data indicates that post-surgery opioid prescribing for kids has plummeted over the past few years, in the wake of research linking opioids to such harms as respiratory depression, and the risk of continued opioid use, when non-opioid painkillers work just as well. Once routinely ordered for children to relieve moderate pain after outpatient surgery from tonsillectomies or knee arthroscopy, prescriptions written for teens declined to 48 percent from 78 percent between 2014 and 2017, and for preschoolers to 12 percent from 30 percent, based on a study of more than 124,000 patients.