The Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) grows psilocybin mushrooms in Arizona with permission from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Late last month, the organization announced that it will use those mushrooms in a state-funded study testing their effectiveness in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
That project, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has greenlit, exemplifies a renaissance of research investigating the psychotherapeutic potential of a drug that has been federally prohibited since 1968. But this route to pharmacological redemption, which focuses on turning psilocybin into an officially approved medicine, does not address the injustice of criminalizing people who use psychedelics for reasons the government refuses to recognize as legitimate.
