Deborah Howell (Host): You know, for quite some time, it was unthinkable to prescribe psychedelic drugs to patients for any reason. But that mindset is changing year by year. Welcome to Stoughton Health Talk. I'm Deborah Howell, and I invite you to listen as we discover how psychedelic drugs found their way to the U.S. And became embedded in our culture, and how did this affect research on psychedelics and mental health? Joining me is Beverly Fergus, a Master's Degree student at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. Welcome back, Bev. Nice to have you with us.

Beverly Fergus: Thank you so much for having me. This is so great.

Host: Let's dive right in because it's such a wonderful subject. How were psychedelics brought to the U.S. And where were they from?

Beverly Fergus: Well, I think I'm going to focus on the use of magic mushrooms because it's being so heavily studied right now and has such a rich history. These mushrooms have been seen as early as 9000 B.C. In stone paintings in North Africa and Spain. Indigenous cultures have been using psilocybin-containing mushrooms for generations in ritual ceremonies and But psilocybin was first introduced to the U.S. by a U.S. Banker, Gordon Wasson, and his wife, who traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, and participated in the mushroom ceremony. They were so excited about the new experience. And spent tons of time talking about the effects on body and consciousness, even though they had promised the shaman in Mexico that they weren't going to talk about it and keep the experience private. But a photo essay was published in Life Magazine in 1957 detailing their experience.

Host: Okay. And then, what happened after the 1957 Life magazine article chronicled the magic mushroom experience from banker Gordon Wasson and his wife?

Beverly Fergus: Well, that article was really pivotal in introducing these mushrooms to the rest of the world. Wasson brought back the mushrooms and gave a sample to Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman. And then, he isolated the psilocybin and began producing pills for research purposes. For the next decade, thousands of doses were administered in clinical settings. Psychiatrists, doctors, researchers considered psychedelics like psilocybin to be promising treatments for alcoholism, autism, and a host of other conditions. So in the '60s, psilocybin was considered the wonder drug that could cure everything from addiction to anxiety.

Host: Oh yeah. But then, that was the '60s. So therefore, we got to talk about Timothy Leary and Harvard and how they got involved.

Beverly Fergus: Yeah, Timothy Leary, I mean, everybody has heard of him. And he and Richard Alpert, both psychology professors at Harvard, became super interested in the psychedelics after reading this Life article. It had spurred so much interest in that area of Mexico and in these mushrooms. So, Leary and Alpert went down to Mexico and tried the mushrooms and were amazed at the effects. Leary stated that the experience was " above all and without question the deepest religious experience of his life." He also said that he learned more during the six or seven hours after he ate them than he learned in all the years as a psychologist.

So, they started the Harvard Psilocybin Project and experimented on students and on themselves. And everybody considered it a wonder drug. Timothy Leary, if you want to read about him, it's a super interesting read, but you can look him up online and he was a crazy guy. But, you know, this was in the midst of the burgeoning hippie movement that embraced a counterculture that included and expanded into music, literature, and art.

Host: Yeah. And then, of course, they were enjoying it, but how did the establishment react to that hippie culture and their alternative movement?

Beverly Fergus: Oh, my gosh. The establishment, a lot of people, including the government, considered the hippie movement a threat. It was a counterculture that was at odds with the moral code of the time. So by 1968, the establishment had enough and the war on drugs began. Nixon was elected in '68 and promised to bring back law and order, calling Timothy Leary the most dangerous man in America.

And then, years later, John Ehrlichman, a top aide for Nixon, had this quote, which I still think is so crazy. He said, "You know what this was really all about. The Nixon White House had two enemies, the anti-war left and black people. We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or Blacks, but by getting the public to associate hippies and Blacks with drugs, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."

Host: Oh, all right. Well, so how did all this affect research on psychedelics and mental health? I'm sure it didn't do it any good.

Beverly Fergus: Well, in 1971, Nixon officially declared the war on drugs, stating that drug abuse was public enemy number one. And since I'm of that generation, I remember how scary everybody thought this war was. You know, I thought there was going to be drug pushers around every corner. The Controlled Substances Act came into effect after that and designated all psychedelics Schedule 1 drugs, which meant that they were the most dangerous drugs, there was no medical benefit, and they had great potential for abuse. So, this stalled research completely. It became almost impossible to get those materials for study. And so, consequently, 50 years of no research, despite all the promise of those treatments in the '60s.

Host: So, let me go back to Timothy Leary. He went down to Mexico. I think you said Oaxaca. How did he get it there? Was it readily available on the street or could you go into a store? How did he get it?

Beverly Fergus: Oh, there was a shaman in Oaxaca in a community, her name was Maria Sabina, and she was the one that had asked Gordon Wasson to keep this private. He had coerced her to share the mushrooms with him and his wife. But once that article came out, people flooded to Mexico for these mushrooms. And it was tragic because it turned out that the community that she was in ostracized her. They burnt her house down and then she ended up dying in poverty, because of the exposure of these mushrooms.

Host: So even in the '60s, you could not get psilocybin anywhere in the U.S. You had to find other sources.

Beverly Fergus: Right. Until Gordon Wasson brought them back and then they were using these pills that Albert Hoffman synthesized. And then, they were using them for legitimate research, but mushrooms were really brought to the U.S. after 1957 into the '60s.

Host: All right. So much for research. A huge, huge setback. Is there anything else you'd like to add to our conversation?

Beverly Fergus: Yeah. There's been an explosion of interest in this field, because so many people are desperate for mental health help. You know, psilocybin and other psychedelics hold so much promise, much more than what is currently out there. So, I kind of hope that we learn from the mistakes of the '60s and that we can stay on course by making this psychedelic-assisted therapy accessible to all people. But I also hope that the industry doesn't forget about these indigenous cultures who have been using these medicines for thousands of years. We can learn a lot from their wisdom and traditions.

Host: Let's keep our eyes and ears open, and this is how medical advances occur.

Beverly Fergus: Right. We can learn a lot from them. But once the FDA approves it and pharmaceutical companies get a hold of it and the government gets involved, anything can happen.

Host: One last question for you. Are you hopeful at all that so many studies are coming back positive, that things might change?

Beverly Fergus: Oh, yes. I think that psilocybin will be approved by the FDA for use in assisted therapies probably within the next three or four years and MDMA even sooner than that.

Host: Well, that's just wonderful. And it's been wonderful talking to you, Bev, about this. You always enlighten us so much. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Beverly Fergus: Thank you so much for having me. I really, really enjoy it.

Host: And for more information, head on over to our website at stoughtonhealth.com. And that concludes this episode of Stoughton Health Talk. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Stoughton Health podcasts. I'm Deborah Howell. Have a terrific day.

disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not serve as an endorsement.