Australia has become the first country in the world to officially recognize psilocybin as a medicine. The new measures, which take effect in July, allow licensed psychiatrists to prescribe MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

But as the media there state, this does not mean free use for all. Instead, the substances will be used carefully, with various safeguards throughout the process, which is a sensible and necessary approach to bringing psychedelics into the mainstream.⁠

"We need to take some baby steps rather than one giant leap," said Vinay Lakra, associate professor at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

"So this is a baby step in the right direction and what it does is allow us to do things in an appropriately safe way for everyone and take a step back if necessary."

Mike Musker, a mental health and suicide prevention researcher at the University of South Australia, hailed the move as "long overdue".

"For many people who have experienced PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder and depression), especially military veterans and people who have worked in emergency services, standard psychiatric drugs have not worked and do not offer relief," Musker points out.

The news comes a month after mushrooms became legal for adult use in Oregon and just months after Colorado residents voted to decriminalize psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs.⁠

Throughout time, psychedelics have been used by indigenous peoples in the Americas for millennia, but Western researchers only began to seriously consider their potential uses in the middle of the last century.

Such drugs have become a symbol of countercultural movements since the 1960s, when they were banned.

Authorities in Canada and the United States are among those that have already permitted the medical use of MDMA and psilocybin.