Yes, exactly. Psychedelics have been described as "nonspecific amplifiers".
A hypothesis I have is that therapists, and their patients, already know many of the things that'll help make them happier - but the patient isn't doing them, because they lack the motivation, or they lack the belief that they're capable of making and sticking with those changes, so why bother trying.
Doing a psychedelic trip in that therapeutic context seems to make the patient motivated to make the changes that they already logically knew would be helpful, and the trip in this context makes them believe they're capable of making and sticking with those changes - so, then they end up making those changes.
Thiel backed COMPASS Pathways which got breakthrough status last year. The Usona Institute, which just got breakthrough status this month, also for a use of psilocybin, is to my knowledge not supported by Thiel.
> Back in late 2018, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy status to the ongoing work from COMPASS Pathways investigating psilocybin, the key psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression. A large, multi-center Phase 2 trial spanning the US, UK and Europe is currently underway testing a variety of dosing strategies.
> This new FDA Breakthrough Therapy approval focuses on a seven-site, Phase 2 trial currently underway in the United States. Coordinated by a non-profit research organization called the Usona Institute, the trial is exploring the antidepressant properties of a single psilocybin dose in treating patients with major depressive disorder.
For people interested in the therapeutic use of psychedelics and people seeking (legal) psychedelic retreat recommendations, I compiled some info here: https://tripsafe.org/psychedelic-therapy/
See also this Nature paper that Paul Stamets is an author on: Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees
> Waves of highly infectious viruses sweeping through global honey bee populations have contributed to recent declines in honey bee health. Bees have been observed foraging on mushroom mycelium, suggesting that they may be deriving medicinal or nutritional value from fungi. Fungi are known to produce a wide array of chemicals with antimicrobial activity, including compounds active against bacteria, other fungi, or viruses. We tested extracts from the mycelium of multiple polypore fungal species known to have antiviral properties. Extracts from amadou (Fomes) and reishi (Ganoderma) fungi reduced the levels of honey bee deformed wing virus (DWV) and Lake Sinai virus (LSV) in a dose-dependent manner. In field trials, colonies fed Ganoderma resinaceum extract exhibited a 79-fold reduction in DWV and a 45,000-fold reduction in LSV compared to control colonies. These findings indicate honey bees may gain health benefits from fungi and their antimicrobial compounds.
Sort of. "Connecticut’s drug laws will go from some of the most draconian in the country to some of the most lenient this fall when most drug possession crimes are reduced from felonies to misdemeanors" So drug possession is still a misdemeanor in CT.
When I hear decriminalized I think no criminal penalties and civil infraction only, and technically decriminalization really means no penalties. Sadly, that's not what this is.
Still, the Connecticut policy is a step the right direction.
The Denver one isn't technically decriminalization either, but it's effectively decriminalization, at least in terms of Denver city police.
Also, there are a number of other states that have reduced criminal penalties for drug possession from felony to misdemeanor, such as Oregon and California.
If anyone is interested in commentary on this, this video with Anderson Cooper and Michael Pollan is great: https://www.facebook.com/AndersonCooperFullCircle/videos/den.... They talk about the psilocybin vote at the start of the video and at about 3.5 mins in.
Yes, the obstacle to wider use is policy and regulation.
For those interested, some thoughts:
There are two types of users from a policy perspective. People with specific diagnoses/diseases, and "healthy" people.
For people with specific diagnoses and diseases, the most important work is FDA approval of MDMA and psilocybin. MAPS, COMPASS Pathways, and Usona are working on this and they require a bunch of money to get through to a successful FDA approval. Funding this research is a very high leverage way to enable policy change, because the FDA has a relatively clear process to approving a drug for medical use for patients with relevant medical diagnoses.
For "healthy people," there needs to be another route. Some people are working on ballot initiatives and legislation that will impact this (see Oregon, Denver, Oakland, Iowa) and that may be a high leverage route. But the path here is less clear. As you note in some cases, some types of research can be helpful for boosting political change, whereas others aren't going to be an efficient use of capital for that goal.