Frederick Blunt

Launch of the Sign, Send, Subscribe campaign to reschedule psilocybin for the UK's mental health

PRESS RELEASE: The Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group launches the Sign, Send, Subscribe campaign, uniting voices across the UK in a call for the urgent rescheduling of psilocybin to allow the development of pressingly needed new mental health treatment approaches.

The Sign, Send, Subscribe campaign calls for a Home Office review of the Schedule 1 status of psilocybin, the active component of “magic mushrooms.”

This is your invitation to get involved.

The aim of the campaign is to enable breakthrough mental health treatments to be developed. Especially in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, fresh mental health treatment approaches are needed to counteract the crippling social and economic costs of the UK’s already critical mental health crisis.

“The reports of those lucky enough to have received [psilocybin-assisted] treatment legally read as unequivocal endorsements, yet the possibility of scaling up the research necessary to roll out these treatments on the widespread scale so desperately needed remains at almost impossible reach,” says Conservative MP for Reigate and unenumerated Chairman of the CDPRG Crispin Blunt, speaking of the restrictions posed by psilicybin’s current Schedule 1 status in the forward of Medicinal Use of Psilocybin.

This new report was co-published by the CDPRG and the Adam Smith Institute on 27 July 2020 and sent in advance to the Home Office, calling for the rescheduling of psilocybin. Underscoring the recommendations made by the report’s authors, the Sign, Send, Subscribe campaign calls for the urgent movement to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 on a research-only basis, to enable clinicians to study its therapeutic potential more easily.

It is open to all individuals and organisations who wish to support drastically needed improvements to the mental health of the nation through the rescheduling of psilocybin.

Those who wish to participate in the call for this simple but pivotal change can:

  1. Sign the Gov.uk petition, “Reschedule psilocybin to reduce unnecessary barriers to mental health research.” (Currently awaiting publication. All participating organisations will share the link with their audiences when it is available.)

  2. Send a letter to your MP, using the simple template letter provided to explain the issue.

  3. Subscribe to the mailing lists of participating organisations for updates on the progress of the campaign and additional initiatives to get involved in.

Letters sent already have had positive replies, with those contacted, including Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough and Rushton, agreeing to raise the issue in Parliament. Campaigners are taking to Twitter to share MP’s responses.

Psilocybin has already demonstrated greater efficacy in early clinical trials than any currently available treatments in alleviating many of society’s most prevalent mental health conditions. Conditions in which it is understood to be helpful include, but are limited to, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, eating disorders, end-of-life anxiety in cancer patients and cluster headaches.

But it current Schedule 1 status creates unnecessary roadblocks in the form of increased costs, timeframes and stigma, which are currently preventing the UK’s researchers from developing widely available treatments befitting the scope and scale of the nation’s unmet treatment needs.

Sign, Send Subscribe is being vocally supported by individuals and organisations including Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, the DrugScience Medical Psychedelics Working Group, led by Prof. Jo Neill and Prof. David Nutt, veterans’ mental health organisation Heroic Hearts UK, the Maudsley Psychedelic Society led by Dr. James Rucker, the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research, the UK’s Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) led by former undercover drugs operative and Good Cop, Bad War (2016) author Neil Woods, and Clusterbusters which supports research into cluster headaches — a notoriously painful and hard to treat condition for which psychedelic-assisted treatments show unique promise.

The Sign, Send, Subscribe campaign is also being widely covered in regional and national press. "This [campaign] could save lives and needs enough MPs to support it to change the schedule," Woods, who is a former undercover drugs operative, told The Hereford Times. "I challenge our MPs to publicly support this. It should be easy for them to do so or explain why they don't support the mental health of veterans, police or those suffering with PTSD." In The Sunday Times, police commissioner Arfon Jones said, “I think it’s very important that we do what we can to improve the wellbeing of the population, especially the large numbers who suffer from depression,” he said. “And a lot of them are not treatable by conventional, traditional medications.”

“According to the commissioner, [rescheduling psilocybin] could improve the lives of people suffering mental illness and save the NHS billions of pounds,” reports Wales Online. “There was an urgent need to act quickly because the isolation caused by the coronavirus lockdown had had a devastating impact on people’s mental health, [Jones] said.” “New research from scientists clearly shows psilocybin has been wrongly classified as being harmful,” Jones told The Mirror, urging Government Officials to listen to the recommendations made by leading scientists in connection with the Medicinal Use of Psilocybin report and the Sign, Send Subscribe campaign.

“Psilocybin should be rescheduled. At this point it’s unethical to keep it prohibited given its transformative effects on depression and very low risk of harm if used in a therapeutic context with appropriate screening,” said Prof. Julian Savulescu, Director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Co-Director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, in a set of recommendations for the rescheduling of psilocybin from leading academics which has been sent to the Home Office.

As well as signing, sending and/or subscribing, all individuals or organisations wishing to raise awareness of the need to reduce current barriers to mental health treatment research can get further involved by contacting CDPRG Outreach Coordinator Ros Stone on [email protected].

Links

The campaign page: https://www.cdprg.co.uk/psilocybin

Select press coverage:

Medicinal Use of Psilocybin, full report, by Dr. James Rucker (King’s College London), David King, Dr. Daniel D’Hotman, Dr. Jesse Schnall, Timmy Davis and Prof. Jo Neill (Manchester University).

Medicinal Use of Psilocybin, press pack, containing:

➢ Press Release (4 pages including author quotes)

➢ Author Bios (2 pages)

➢ Supporting statements (1 page) 1-2 page documents to summarise specific arguments: ➢ The economic case for rescheduling

➢ The scale of UK mental illness and how psilocybin could be gamechanger

➢ What's the scientific justification for current S1 status?

➢ A research-only model: how to reschedule without increasing harms/crime

Press release: “Home Office imply there’s no need to reschedule psilocybin - Crispin Blunt MP launches economic investigation in response,” CDPRG, 05 August 2020

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Home Office imply there's no need to reschedule psilocybin: Crispin Blunt MP launches economic investigation in response

In responding to an new report recommending that psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) should be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations (2001) to facilitate medical research & development, the Home Office spokesperson said the current classification of psilocybin under Schedule 1 does not prevent research or clinical trials.

This comment does not address the salient findings of the report, Crispin Blunt MP, points out. While, theoretically, Schedule 1 regulations do not preclude research, in practice, the associated costs and delays are so significant that they deter many researchers from working with those drugs and substantially complicate the studies that do take place.

MS patient found not guilty of cultivating cannabis for medical use

Carlisle Court acquitted an MS patient today of cultivating cannabis, following the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision not to offer evidence in court today on a public interest basis.

Lesley Gibson, 55, along with her husband Mark Gibson, were acquitted by Carlisle Crown Court of possession and cultivation of cannabis and not guilty verdicts were entered by the judge on the court record.

The case had been looming over the couple since January 2019 and at a court hearing in December 2019 the CPS decided to send the case to trial in January 2020. The defence submitted that the Gibsons had no option but to cultivate cannabis in their home to manage Lesley’s MS as Lesley was unable to access an NHS prescription, while the cost of a private prescription was prohibitive. The Gibsons were acquitted today with the crown offering no evidence and deciding it was not in the public interest to prosecute as Lesley once again has a private prescription for medicinal cannabis, bought at full cost.

12.5% of Police Forces in England and Wales have moved away from criminalising drug use, trialling new approaches to reducing drug harms

New research shows at least eight Police Forces in England and Wales are presently implementing or developing drug diversion programmes, moving away from criminalisation and instead taking a more public health orientated approach to drugs. The research by the Conservative Drug Police Reform Group (CDPRG) will be unveiled at the Conservative Party Conference at the CDPRG’s panel discussion event ‘Is Pragmatic Policing Driving Drug Policy Reform?’

The CDPRG’s briefing explores changing policing attitudes to drug offences in the UK and shows that 12.5% of England and Wales’ 40 Police Forces with Police and Crime Commissioners are using or developing programmes which divert drug users into treatment and education services rather than prosecuting them. Durham, Avon and Somerset and Thames Valley Police Forces are currently running drug diversion programmes, whilst similar schemes are being developed in the West Midlands, Dyfed Powys, North Wales, South Wales, and Cleveland. Whilst data on the outcomes of these programmes is still limited at this early stage, Jason Kew of Thames Valley Police reported an 80% success rate on diversion courses at an oral evidence session on drug policing at the APPG on Drug Policy Reform in May, 2019.

New Research Shows Cannabis Consumed ‘Blindfolded’ by Most Users - Few Know the Strain or Potency of What They Buy

For most people using cannabis their experience is akin going into a bar blindfolded, as the majority have no knowledge of the strains they’re consuming and the impact of the varying levels of compounds, a major new report from the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group finds.

The research found a real lack of education and awareness regarding two of the key components in cannabis, THC and CBD, and their effects. Different strains of cannabis contain varying levels of THC, CBD and other compounds, and these levels considerably impact the effect of cannabis when consumed. Yet 42% said that they didn’t know that THC is the key component that causes a ‘high’, while 55% didn’t know that cannabis with high THC and low levels of CBD seem to be more addictive and have worse effects on memory.

CDPRG and YouGov Poll show overwhelming public backing for medicinal cannabis. Also growing support for new thinking on drugs policy.

A major new survey commissioned by the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group (CDPRG) demonstrates powerful public support for making medical cannabis legally available to patients who could safely benefit from it. It also indicates a clear and growing appetite overall for a new approach to drug policy in the UK.

Altogether 77% of those questioned by YouGov supported legalisation of cannabis-based medicines, while 76% responded that that they would personally consider using a cannabis-based medicine to treat a condition where there was strong evidence of benefit.

Conservative Drugs Policy Reform Group Launches To Promote “Full and Transparent” Debate On Drug Policy Reform

The Conservative Drugs Policy Reform Group (CDPRG), chaired by Crispin Blunt MP and supported by a number of Conservative MPs, launches today (June 27) as a unique policy forum promoting fully informed, evidence-based debate around drug policy reform.

Under CEO Rob Wilson, a former Conservative MP and Minister for Civil Society from 2014 -2017, CDPRG is committed to examining the evidence for change after half a century of prohibition which has failed either to deliver better outcomes for society or to improve life chances.

CDPRG is not committed to and will not advocate any specific outcome of the debate it promotes. However, in exploring the evidence from the UK and worldwide, it will challenge the basis for the current UK policies, asking its advocates to justify the outcomes against current medical and scientific knowledge and in terms of health and law enforcement.