THE MAGIC OF MUSHROOMS

NOW

LEGAL IN OREGON, DOCTOR RACHEL KNOX IS ON THE FRONTLINE TO ENSURE EQUAL ACCESS TO ITS THERAPEUTIC BENEFITS.

BY DANIEL BARRICK ARTWORK JAMAAL HALE

Psilocybin mushrooms have been used for centuries, from Plato and other philosophers, to the Aztecs to the Native Americans. A mural found in Northern Australia depicting mushrooms and other psychedelics dates back to 10,000 BCE and prehistoric rock paintings in Spain suggest the use of magic mushrooms by Europeans in 4,000 BCE. In terms of how we arrived at the present day with most of the United States still hovering in prohibition of psychedelics and other substances, one must go back and take the country’s entire history into account.

Although ‘magic mushrooms’ were made illegal under the first “War on Drugs” declared by president Nixon in 1970, it was by far not the first time the United States implemented drug laws that seemed, by design, to selectively target specific communities. Anti-opium laws of the 1870’s took aim at Chinese immigrants and anti-cannabis laws in the 1910s and 1920’s targeted Mexican Americans and migrants. In an interview with Dan Baum in 1994, a top Nixon aide and former domestic policy advisor, John Erlichman, shockingly confirmed that “hippies” and “blacks” were the targets identified under the Nixon administration. “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Despite these revelations and a growing body of evidence revealing the unsustainable human and fiscal costs of the “war on drugs’’, public opinion continues to run the gamut on ‘shrooms’ and other natural and botanical substances as legitimate gateways to healing the mind and body. The conversations become more lively and interesting when factoring in significant medical research that indicates psilocybin to be a healthier and more direct treatment for depression than antidepressants/SSRI’s, which don’t guarantee quality results and have the potential to lead to a host of other problems, such as feeling emotionally numb, reduced positive feelings, negative bodily impact and suicidal thoughts. In recent years, researchers have also been able to prove that psilocybin therapy is useful in treatment for manic depression, trauma therapy, anxiety disorders (such as PTSD) and addiction, in both clinical/ pharmacological and anecdotal contexts. As a result of the preponderance of evidence, psilocybin mushrooms have now been decriminalized and legalized for therapeutic use in Oregon with ballot measure 109 in 2020, and decriminalized in California and parts of Colorado, Massachusetts,Michigan, Washington and Washington, D.C.

In an effort to help bridge the gap between those who have borne the brunt of prohibition and equal access for all to therapeutic psilocybin and cannabis, Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board member, Dr. Rachel Knox, MD, MBA has been a frontline advocate and trailblazer. As an endocannabinologist in Portland, OR, Dr. Knox utilizes CBD, cannabis, and other natural medicines to regulate and heal the body. She received her medical and business degrees from Tufts School of Medicine after completing her undergraduate studies at Duke where she trained in family and integrative medicine before pursuing additional study in the areas of functional medicine, cannabinology, and endocannabinology.

As the immediate past chair of the Oregon Cannabis Commission, Equity Chair of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board, a founding board member of Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition (CRCC), and member of the National Council on Federal Psychedelic Priorities (NCFPP), Dr. Knox shared with us some of the therapeutic benefits and known side-effects of psilocybin therapy.

“Through its activity at serotonin receptors, psilocybin is one of many natural substances that engages the endocannabinoidome, a complex signaling network in the body that manages all physiological functions,” Dr. Knox on the safety, efficacy, and tolerability for anxiety, depression, substance abuse (like tobacco smoking and alcoholism), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) compared with available pharmacological interventions. “There is also evidence that psilocybin may be effective for indications beyond mental health such as chronic inflammatory and pain conditions, cluster headaches, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune diseases,” Dr. Knox added. “Psilocybin, like many other natural substances, has a wider safety profile than pharmaceutical drugs. This means that psilocybin has increased safety and tolerability at a wider range of doses, and with fewer unwanted or adverse effects. Psilocybin has also been shown to be more effective at treating MDD and anxiety, resulting in longer lasting effects with much fewer doses. Lastly, psilocybin is commonly administered in the context of nondirective psychotherapy or in community; adjunct methodologies that can greatly influence a person’s experience with psilocybin and its outcome.” explained. “This network’s engine is the endocannabinoid system (ECS) which has a primary role of homeostasis–keeping the body in balance. Being an endocannabinologist, a person who studies the function, dysfunction, modulation, and treatment of the endocannabinoidome, requires knowing how substances like psilocybin affect the human body and when they may or may not be beneficial.”

In terms of short and long term impact, Dr. Rachel stated that common results of psilocybin therapy can range from “anxiety reduction to euphoria and hallucination,” with individual testimony often going as far as describing it as “life-altering and deeply spiritual.” However, psychedelic experiences are commonly affected by the individual’s “set and setting” (in other words, their state of mind and environment at the time of ingestion/ experience), with side effects sometimes including nausea, gastrointestinal and/ or psychological distress, and overall impaired concentration.

While the Food and Drug Administration has declared psilocybin a ‘breakthrough therapy’ for Major Depressive Order (MDD), there are also evidentiary studies available

In 2020, enough Oregonians took heed of the cost/benefit analysis and voted “Yes” on Measure 109 to legalize psilocybin assisted therapy in the state. “The measure directed the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to oversee the regulation of psilocybin production and facilitated use after a two-year rule-making period which ended in December 2022,” Dr. Knox concluded. “OHA began accepting applications for psilocybin manufacturing, service centers, and facilitator licenses in January 2023, and we should expect the first psilocybin service centers to open their doors to the public this summer. Until this happens, commercial psilocybin services in Oregon remain unlawful and because psilocybin is still considered a schedule 1 controlled substance, it won’t be covered by medical insurance right away.”

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