With UCI and other programs, psychedelics soon could be as controversial as aspirin ...Middle East

Usually, it’s impossible to say exactly when an idea, particularly a culturally fraught one about handshake drugs and mental health, makes the leap from fringe to mainstream.

But usually isn’t always. And when it comes to the notion that party drugs like mushrooms, ecstasy and LSD should become non-party drugs – legally regulated treatments for a range of mental health woes – the leap might be happening right now.

UC Irvine said last month that its Sue and Bill Gross School of Nursing is now one of two California schools (UC Davis is the other) planning to start teaching future mental health nurses how psychedelics can be used to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and addiction, among other maladies.

The school also has tabbed assistant clinical professor Chris Cleary, a mental health nurse with a doctorate in nursing and an active practice in Los Alamitos, to lead the new program, which is likely to start over the next 24 months.

“It’s got to be a supportive part of a broader treatment plan, but it’s pretty clear that (psychedelics) are helpful in ways that some other medications might not be for some, or even a lot of, people,” Cleary said.

“That’s what the research is supporting.”

Though party drugs still carry some stigma, and the existing world of unregulated psychedelic treatments currently available online can seem to be less about health care than about recreation or experimentation, UCI’s public embrace of structured, therapy-driven psychedelic medicine is anything but fringe.

Instead, the school is joining a fast-growing world of medical experts, educators, investors – and millions of patients suffering from common mental health conditions – who are banking on, or at least curious about, the future of psychedelic medicine.

With its July announcement, UCI became one of 32 schools around the country, from Ivy Leaguers like Yale and Penn to non-Ivy Leaguers like the University of Pikeville, planning to launch classes in psychedelics. Those schools, collectively, are supported by a 2-year-old nonprofit called the University Psychedelic Education Program, which is financed, in part, by Steven Cohen, a multi-billionaire who owns the New York Mets.

In addition to backing the nonprofit, Cohen has invested in at least two pharmaceutical companies, one in Canada and another in Australia, both of which are hoping to become key players if – or, in their view, when – psychedelic medicine gets a federal green light.

Science, money, need; all are pointing to the idea that psychedelics, in some settings, soon could be as controversial as aspirin.

“It’s going to happen, eventually,” Cleary said, referencing federal approval and public acceptance of psychedelics.

“That’s why it’s so important that students get the information they need. It’s about the future.”

Mixed signals

Still, as of now, the official green light for party drugs has yet to start flashing.

The substances in question remain illegal under federal law, punishable as possible felonies if you’re caught holding them. And while two states (Colorado and Oregon) recently have made it legal to use psilocybin (mushrooms) as a therapeutic, that’s not yet the case in California. A bill that would have paved a similar path didn’t win Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature in 2023, and similar proposals stalled last year in the state legislature.

Also, traditional psychedelics continue to be viewed, accurately or otherwise, as public health hazards.

Federal data shows that 80,391 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2024, and more than a third had MDMA in their system when they died, though the vast majority also had some other drug in their body, making that drug’s precise health threat somewhat murky. The chemicals in mushrooms and LSD are less toxic, and rarely lethal on their own, but both drugs can impair judgment and mood in ways that can lead to injury or death. And, at higher doses, recreational use of all three drugs can lead to everything from depression to long-term brain impairment.

For all those reasons, and more, federal approval of party drugs remains in limbo.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration surprised Wall Street and others when it declined to OK a drug based on MDMA (the chemical in ecstasy) as a treatment for PTSD.

Previously, the FDA had made it legal for doctors to prescribe ketamine (an anesthesia that can produce hallucinations and is used as a party drug, “Special K”), and it declared other, traditional psychedelics to be potential “breakthrough therapies,” an official designation that suggested full approval was coming. Also, the specific drug in question had performed well in Stage 3 clinical trials (usually the last step before FDA approval), with 2 out of 3 MDMA recipients considered cured of PTSD after two months of treatment, roughly double the success rate of people who were offered traditional therapies.

Still, on Aug. 10, 2024, the federal agency said it wanted – and wants – more testing.

Investors and researchers were shaken by that ruling, but not deterred, viewing it more as a hurdle than a death blow.

But for some non-scientists, the decision felt personal.

“That was crazy,” said Anthony Washington, a 41-year-old truck driver and Uber driver who takes ketamine treatments at a clinic in Anaheim for PTSD that he attributes to abuse he suffered as a child.

“I don’t normally follow (news about FDA approvals), but because of my condition, I’d heard about the testing for that ecstasy drug. Also, I know a guy who was in the trial, who said it really helped.

“So when they said they wouldn’t let people get that drug, I kind of went in a spiral,” Washington said.

“I don’t mean that I tried to hurt myself or anything, but I was frustrated.”

Washington said he grew up in a “just say no” era about drugs, and has used cannabis for much of his life but has always passed on psychedelics, which he laughingly describes as “hippie (stuff).”

But he’s grown curious as he’s read about how MDMA and psilocybin and LSD seem to work, all of which are believed to boost the brain’s ability to rewire itself and, when used in conjunction with other therapy, can help a person develop new responses to past traumas and depression. Washington said he now wonders if those drugs might improve his life.

“From everything I hear, if they start making those drugs available, I’ll sign up,” he said.

Washington says ketamine therapy, which he says runs him about $500 a session and includes oversight from a person he describes as “a nurse or a guide,” is staving off, but not ending, the crippling fear and anxiety that he says are generated by his PTSD.

“I’m not cured,” he said. “After a couple months, or even a couple weeks, I need to come back. It wears off, for me at least.”

Washington isn’t unique. A lot of people who take traditional drugs for mental health conditions don’t get full relief.

Federal data shows that about 8 million Americans suffer from PTSD in any given year, and about half don’t respond to currently available medications. Also, a smaller group of people – about 2.8 million – suffer from treatment-resistant depression, meaning they can be at risk of self-harm when their disease isn’t affected by the medication and therapy that’s currently available.

Those numbers are likely to grow. The Centers for Disease Control, among others, notes that the nation is the midst of a full-blown mental health crisis, with roughly 1 in 4 Americans expected to experience a diagnosable mental health disorder in their lifetime.

So it’s need – as much as the positive research, and the flood of investment money – that’s driving the push to use party drugs as medicine.

Unofficial

The world, of course, isn’t waiting for psychedelics to win official approval.

For several years now, you’ve been able to Google two phrases – “mushroom therapy” and “Orange County” – and connect with a world of locals who claim to provide guided psychedelic services to people who want them. Similar searches for MDMA and LSD therapy don’t get such clear results, but many practices suggest they’ll offer help for people preferring those chemicals.

In this unofficial world, the words healing and therapist are common. But without official rules, the definitions are vague. And it’s unclear what training, if any, is required to be called a “mushroom therapist.”

Some in that world – like Jilly Mulchahey, a 32-year-old self-described “guide” who says she offers psilocybin-induced experiences from her Santa Ana home or in a patient’s home – simply claim a more practical background.

“You’ve got to have a lot, and I mean a lot, of personal experience with this,” Mulchahey, said, laughing. “I totally qualify.”

“That makes me sound weird, I know. But I’m not,” she added. “It’s just that I’ve just found mushrooms make me feel better and make my life better. And a lot of other people have found that to be true as well.”

Cleary at UCI, and others, noted that the therapies under consideration for federal approval would blend drugs with traditional talk therapies. The idea is that the drugs would be taken with oversight from a medical professional, such as a mental health nurse or a psychiatrist, and that the experience could form a basis for battling PTSD or depression or other ailments.

Such rules almost certainly would exclude Mulchahey, who said she has no official medical training beyond “cleaning bedpans and making people smile” at skilled nursing homes in her home state, Oregon.

And while Mulchahey says she makes a living as a mushroom guide – charging different rates based on how much a person is willing or able to pay – she said she’s unafraid of any federal rules that might come to her industry.

“Even if they made mushrooms 100 percent legal tomorrow, and regulate it, it wouldn’t slow down what I do,” she said.

“The culture likes it unofficial, I think,” she added. “People have been taking these drugs for thousands of years. So I don’t think a bunch of rules are going to make it better or worse. It just is.”

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