“Going up to the cabin and ingesting mushrooms with your friends is not medical treatment”

Karl Reynir Einarsson, president of the Icelandic Psychiatric Association, says the discussion of mind-enhancing drugs is misguided. He also says that it is hoped that no psychiatrist in Iceland will agree to take part in research where prisoners are given such drugs.
It is stated in the following article Indicator . Karl says research indicates that a type of mind-enhancing substance could be useful in treating mental disorders in the future, but that time has not yet come. Carl writes:
“The discussion of mind-expanding content is twisted in some ways and it can be difficult to phrase things correctly so that they are not misunderstood. There are several mind-expanding substances, but the one that has been most discussed recently is the substance psilocybin.The reason for this is that there are studies that indicate that the substance may possibly be useful in the treatment of certain mental disorders such as depression.
Before going any further, however, it is worth emphasizing the following: Based on the knowledge available today, it is not possible to recommend the use of psilocybin for mental disorders, except for research or possibly in very exceptional cases where other evidence-based treatments have proven ineffective. In these cases, special permission would be required from the relevant authorities, and treatment under these conditions is not available in Iceland.”
Karl points out that using drugs to get high is a completely different act from medical use. The debate is at an impasse:
“Unfortunately, the psilocybin discussion has gone astray. It’s one thing to use a substance to get high and it’s another to use a substance for therapeutic purposes. Ritalin, for example, is used for attention deficit disorder and benefits many people, even transforming their lives, but it is also misused, often with disastrous consequences.
Going up to the cabin and eating mushrooms with your friends is not medical treatment. However, going to a health care provider where psilocybin is used in treatment along with talk therapy may become an accepted remedy in the future in well-chosen cases. However, this is by no means certain. Many drugs and treatments seemed helpful at the beginning of research, but later turned out not to be. Only time will tell.”
Karl says he looks forward to the ongoing research into mind-expanding drugs, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about their usefulness. “It’s problematic to do research on psilocybin in sick people, and there are a lot of things that can make the substance look like it’s helpful when it really isn’t.” That is why many large studies are needed.”
See Karl’s article