WEBVTT

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So in 1943,

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Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist,

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was developing potential medications
for the treatment of migraine

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when he's accidentally exposed to one.

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He felt a little odd and went home,

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but he had a pretty good idea
of what he'd been exposed to.

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So three days later,

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he went back to the lab
and took 250 micrograms of LSD.

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(Laughter)

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In those days, that was seen
as a minute amount to be taking.

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Drugs and medications were administered

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in the milligram range,
not the microgram range,

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but we know now
that was a pretty solid dose.

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(Laughter)

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So as the effects came on, he realized
the lab was not the right place to be,

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and so he hopped on his bicycle,
and he started riding home.

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And he describes the vivid imagery,
the beauty in nature.

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And he went on
to self-experiment with LSD,

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noting that it had these profound effects.

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But he didn't know
what the clinical utility of it was.

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So LSD was sent out
to researchers around the world,

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and it led to thousands
of papers being published,

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demonstrating that
LSD-assisted psychotherapy

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was effective in treating
a range of psychological disorders.

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One of those researchers
was Timothy Leary,

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professor in psychology
at Harvard University.

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But unfortunately, Timothy's
methodologies got a little loose.

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At the end there, he was giving out LSD
to anyone that would pretty much take it.

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(Laughter)

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So he was fired from Harvard, but -

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(Laughter)

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this was a time of cultural revolution.

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Young Americans were taking LSD en masse, 
and Leary became their figurehead.

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He was seen on national television

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telling the youth
to "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

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This was not a good time
for a cultural revolution.

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The US was at war with Vietnam,

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and the authorities noticed
that those that were protesting the war

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were taking LSD.

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So LSD was seen as a threat
to the very American institution,

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and in 1968 it was banned,
and this is the start of the war on drugs.

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It was then banned
internationally in 1971,

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the same year President Nixon said
that drugs are public enemy number one.

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The drugs he was referring to?

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Psychedelics.

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Sadly, it also meant the end
of psychedelic science.

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With prohibition came
a propaganda campaign

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with myths so powerful they've been
perpetuated into the present day.

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One myth is that LSD may be contaminated
with the poison strychnine.

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So powerful is this myth
that it's contained in the fourth edition

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of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders,

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published by the
American Psychiatric Association,

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where it states that one of the dangers
of taking LSD is exposure to strychnine.

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Now, this is the diagnostic manual

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that psychologists and psychiatrists
around the world use.

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Fortunately, in its most recent edition,

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published in 2013,

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reference to this has been removed,

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because there's never been
any strychnine detected;

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there's no evidence to indicate
that strychnine would be contained in LSD.

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And yet still it was published
in this very distinguished book.

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There's the concern that if you take LSD,
you're going to lose your mind.

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In a literature review of all
the clinical studies that were conducted

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before the prohibition of LSD,

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they found that less that 0.01% of people
that participated in the trials

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experienced any symptoms of psychosis,

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either during or after their 
psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

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And it's important here

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that I distinguish between the medical
application of psychedelic drugs,

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which I'm talking about,

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and the recreational use of those drugs,
which we've become so familiar with.

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Then, in 1990,

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Dr Rick Strassman,


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a psychiatrist who was trained
during the era of psychedelic therapy

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and dreamed of being
a psychedelic therapist,

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was able to re-engage
in psychedelic research.

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He was encouraged by his supervisor
to examine the drug dimethyl-tryptamine

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because the university 
wouldn't know what it was!

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(Laughter)

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Dimethyl-tryptamine is possibly the most
potent psychedelic known to humankind.

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It's used by shamans in South America
to enter the spirit world.

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He was encouraged to do
some small-scale blood studies,

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just looking at
the metabolism of the drug.

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But what he found far more profound
were the participants' experiences.

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They reported being transported
to parallel dimensions

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where there were entities
communicating with them.

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Eventually Strassman
wrapped up his research

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because he felt it was unethical

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to be pushing people
off this psychological abyss

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without knowing where they were going.

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But it was too late.

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He had opened Pandora's Box.

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And we subsequently have seen 
an explosion of psychedelic research,

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what's now being referred to
as the "Psychedelic Renaissance."

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So what have we learnt?

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We've learnt a lot about the brain.

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But what really excites me
as a clinically-trained psychologist

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is mounting evidence
that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies

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are effective in the treatment for people
who don't respond to current therapies

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for a range of mental health conditions.

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So let's look at the evidence.

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We used to think that psychedelics
turned on parts of the mind.

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We've now learnt
[that] what it actually does

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is turn off a part of the brain
called the "default mode network."

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The default mode network
is a series of neural pathways

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that connect certain areas
of the brain together,

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while preventing other parts
of the brain cross-talking.

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It's active whenever
you're in a wakeful state.

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It becomes more active when
you engage in autobiographical narration,

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you know, that little voice in your head.

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And it becomes hyperactive
when people experience depression and OCD.

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So what happens with psychedelics
is it turns the default mode network off.

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So what does that look like?

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The picture you can see here
is the brain not on psychedelics

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and the brain on psychedelics.

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See all the intercommunication
and connectivity

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that's happening
between parts of the brain

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that would never normally communicate.

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And it's been hypothesized
that this is the reason

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that people experience creativity
and have spiritual experiences

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when they take psychedelic drugs.

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But more importantly,
it's been hypothesized

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that this increased communication
and increased connectivity in the brain

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could help treat people who are
treatment-resistant with depression.

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Because with all this interconnectivity
happening in the brain,

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perhaps they can overcome
their entrenched beliefs

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and see the world from
a completely different perspective.

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And this has been tested recently

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by a research group
at Imperial College London.

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They gave people psilocybin, which is
the active ingredient in magic mushrooms,

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to twelve people

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who were treatment-resistant
in the context of psychotherapy.

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The results?

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When given the psilocybin,

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there was a significant reduction
in depression symptoms.

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And this was maintained for many people
at a three-month follow-up.

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What's more interesting is

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[that] because they were doing 
brain scans at the time,

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the people that had the most significant
reductions in depressive symptoms

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were those whose default mode network
was turned off the most.

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Addiction is another area
where we see poor outcomes.

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A group at Johns Hopkins University

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conducted a trial of 
psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy

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for the treatment of tobacco addiction.

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The results were astonishing -

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they found that 80% had quit smoking
at a six-month follow-up -

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when you consider
the leading pharmaceutical today

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for the treatment of tobacco cessation
is only effective for 25% of people.

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This group is now
recruiting more participants

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and conducting clinical trials to gather
further evidence for this treatment.

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Meanwhile, at New York University,
they're recruiting 140 people

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to conduct a clinical trial to evaluate
whether psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy

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is effective for people
with alcohol dependence.

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We've also found that psychedelics
can help people die with dignity.

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Numerous studies have been published now.

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Clinical trials, showing that when
psychedelic-assisted therapy

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is provided to people
who are experiencing end-stage cancer,

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they see a significant reduction
in anxiety symptoms,

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an increase in the quality of their life,

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and their relationships
with their significant others improve.

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Another disorder
that's extremely debilitating

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is post-traumatic stress disorder.

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The current treatments we have
are only effective for 30% of people.

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Those that don't respond to treatment

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are at risk of addiction,
of relationship breakdown, and suicide.

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In the first clinical trial
of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy

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for people who are treatment-resistant
with post-traumatic stress disorder,

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[they] found that there was 
a significant improvement.

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In fact,

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83% of participants no longer met
the diagnostic criteria for PTSD

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after receiving
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

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And this was sustained
for three-and-a-half years follow-up.

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This study has now been replicated

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in Israel, Colorado, Canada, Switzerland,

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and the sponsor of the trial,

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the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies,

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has been able to pull that data,

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they have approached
the US Food and Drug Administration

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and now have approval
to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials.

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Why is this significant?

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Phase 3 clinical trials are the final
stage before a drug becomes a medicine.

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And so in the next few years,
we will see MDMA as a medicine

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for the treatment of PTSD, in the US.

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So, I've mentioned a number
of countries: Israel, Canada, UK.

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There's other countries engaged
in the psychedelic renaissance as well:

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Brazil, the Czech Republic,
even New Zealand,

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but there's one country 
I've not mentioned.

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What is it?

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Why is there no psychedelic
research in Australia?

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(Laughter)

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Well, I can tell you
it's not through a lack of effort.

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In 2011, given that I believe that
these compounds, these psychedelic drugs,

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could assist in the suffering
of hundreds of thousands of Australians,

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I helped form Psychedelic Research
in Science and Medicine,

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Australia's first and only not-for-profit
incorporated organization

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that has a mission

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to initiate, fund and facilitate
psychedelic research in Australia.

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We've developed a strong
collaboration with MAPS,

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and so our first attempt
was to conduct, basically, the same trial

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that they've been doing in the US,
in Israel, in Colorado, in Switzerland;

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except we wanted to focus on war veterans.

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The reason being was strategic.

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What kills more Australian soldiers 
than anything else?

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You beat me to the punch!

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It's not bombs; it's not bullets;

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it's suicide.

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This is an epidemic.

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We thought this would gain public support,

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and we submitted the research protocol
to an independent ethics committee.

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They had no problem with the methodology;

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they didn't have a problem
with administering MDMA to war veterans

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with post-traumatic stress disorder
that had not responded to treatment,

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but they were concerned

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that it wasn't being conducted
in an academic environment.

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So we sought out a professor

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who would come on board
as the Chief Investigator.

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He was based at a Victorian university,

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and last year we submitted the protocol

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to that Victorian university's 
ethics committee.

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Before it reached the ethics committee,

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the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor
stepped in and vetoed it.

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She said, "We're not conducting
this sort of research at our university."

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And we believe this is the result
of academic conservatism.

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So what do I mean by that?

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Well, when you think of people
who use illicit drugs,

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most people don't experience harm.

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Yet all the research we conduct

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is focused on this small group
who do experience harm.

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It's been described by Mugford
as the pathological paradigm of drug use.

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(Laughter)

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Drugs are not illegal
because they're harmful;

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they're perceived as harmful
because they're illegal,

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and only research
that perceptuates that perception

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is funded by the government.

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And this is a major barrier to conducting
psychedelic science in Australia,

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because we want to demonstrate

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the therapeutic benefit
of these illicit substances.

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Further, there's vested interests

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in people who are delivering and
investigating the conventional treatments.

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They say they work.

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Meanwhile, institutions are getting
significant government funding

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to perpetuate the idea that illicit drugs,
including psychedelics, are harmful.

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This has not led us to give up.

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In the past six months,
we've published the first two papers

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on psychedelic science
in the Australian scientific literature.

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We hope that this will increase
the awareness of academics,

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increase the awareness
of healthcare providers

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so that we can have another go

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and get MDMA-assisted psychotherapy
and other psychedelic research

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underway in Australia.

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Because if we don't act now,

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and if we don't start a psychedelic
science program in Australia,

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hundreds of thousands
of Australians will continue to suffer.

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War veterans will continue
to commit suicide,

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or MDMA becomes a medicine in the US,

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so they fly to the US to get treatment.

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How long will it take

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before Australia joins
the international psychedelic renaissance?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)