Is Access To Psychedelic Medicine The Largest Human Rights Issue Today?

• 2 billion people suffer from treatable mental health disorders because they are being denied access to psychedelic medicine, 8 million preventable deaths per year
• Mounting scientific evidence through clinical trials and other formal studies shows that psychedelic drugs can/will revolutionize the treatment of mental health disorders
• No valid reasons for governments to deny access to psychedelic medicine

The world is, unfortunately, a horrible place today. Human rights violations are rampant. Large groups of people, sometimes even large regions or entire nations are subjected to many serious violations – up to and including wrongful deaths.

Nothing in this article is intended to diminish the plight of other groups/regions suffering from human rights abuses. However, in terms of sheer size, the denial of access to psychedelic medicine would appear to be the largest human rights issue on the planet today.

The world’s largest health crisis

The parameters here are as unequivocal as they are extreme:
 

• Two billion people on the planet (more than 1 in 4 people) suffer from treatable but generally untreated mental health disorders.
• ~Roughly 8 million preventable deaths per year directly attributable to these mental health disorders.
• Existing drugs/therapies are grossly inadequate.
• (Currently prohibited) psychedelic medicines can deliver cures – and save lives.

Looking at only substance abuse, depression, anxiety and PTSD, there are now roughly 2 billion people globally with treatable mental health disorders.

In the United States, two-thirds of those exhibiting symptoms of depression don’t even seek treatment because of the dismal options available. Of the veterans receiving treatment from the VA for PTSD, two-thirds report no benefit from treatment. Untreated disorders.

Substance abuse and addiction issues affect over 1 billion people globally and produce 7+ million deaths per year. They are essentially untreated since (absent psychedelic drugs) we lack any effective medications to control addictive cravings.

Altogether, eight million deaths per year are caused by these mental health disorders. And results from formal clinical trials currently underway and past clinical studies indicate that psychedelic medicine can prevent most of these deaths.

Treatable mental health disorders. Preventable deaths. No access to the necessary medicines. A fundamental violation of human rights.

It is the utter failure of conventional medicine to deliver cures (or even effective relief of symptoms) that has resulted in this Mental Health Crisis – and 2 billion treatable mental health disorders. For every active Covid-19 infection today, there are approximately 100 mental health disorders.

Conventional medicine offers no hope in controlling a mental health pandemic made radically worse by the stresses from Covid-related lockdowns.

Psychedelic medicine: the only hope for the Mental Health Crisis

In contrast, scientific research on psychedelic drugs has shown that:
 

• Using psilocybin to treat nicotine addiction, 80% of smokers were still fully abstinent 6 months later (2014 study)
• Using ibogaine to treat opioid addiction, 50% of addicts had stopped consuming opioids within one month (2017 study)
• A 2016 study on “treatment-resistant depression” reported that two-thirds of patients (66%) were in remission one week after their first psilocybin therapy session
•  In a Phase III clinical trial using MDMA-assisted therapy to treat PTSD, ~90% of participants reported benefits from treatment, with 67% “no longer qualifying” for a diagnosis of PTSD (i.e. they were cured)

This isn’t some mere incremental improvement in (mental) healthcare. This is cures versus failures. A healthcare Revolution. Miracle Drugs.

It is a Revolution that has been delayed for 50 years by the War on Drugs – a totally unjustifiable policy imposed on most of the world that has (finally) been revealed as a colossal failure and mistake.

It is a Revolution that continues to be delayed and obstructed by a political Establishment still unwilling to publicly acknowledge its gross mistakes (and misuse of public funds) in the War on Drugs crusade.

Governments obstructing access to life-saving drugs

The most-obvious evidence of this human rights violation is in the United States, which has also always been the epicenter of the War on Drugs.

An amendment was recently put for a vote in Congress. The amendment was merely to permit the government to study the only medicines that can possibly address the Mental Health Crisis – psychedelic drugs.

The amendment was voted down 331 – 91.

While psychedelic drugs have powerful psychoactive effects, they are generally non-toxic and non-addictive. They are much safer than either alcohol or tobacco, which these same political hypocrites allow to kill over ½ million Americans per year.

Indeed, it is because psychedelic drugs are so safe (and so badly needed) that they are being fast-tracked through formal clinical trials by the FDA. Many of the chemical concoctions Big Pharma attempts to foist upon consumers are delayed by long lists of safety concerns.

Psychedelic drug development is also advancing in the UK/EU via their “real-world evidence” pathway to drug approval and commercialization. Psychedelic drugs are eligible for this process as “proven safe substances”.

There can be no possible legitimate reason to refuse to study extremely potent (and safe) medicines that can address a health crisis that affects roughly 2 billion people around the world, and approximately 80 million Americans.

Blood on the hands of Congress

This illegitimate obstruction of access to life-saving medicines is a textbook human rights violation. The refusal of Congress to allow even the study of psychedelic medicine appears to be an especially blatant human rights violation given the suicide epidemic currently raging in the United States.

Today, one American is killing themselves an average of every 10 minutes. In the U.S. military alone, 22 veterans commit suicide each day.

It’s an epidemic that was first publicly identified by the media as far back as 2013. But in the eight years since, nothing has been done to address this. Blood on the hands of Congress.

Meanwhile, U.S. drug overdose deaths soared by nearly 30% in 2020 to over 93,000. That’s one preventable death approximately every 5 minutes. More blood on the hands of Congress.

The numbers alone are appalling.

The choice of the U.S. government (Republican and Democrat administrations alike) to continue to block access to the only drugs that could address this epidemic of preventable deaths is – at best – a major human rights violation. At worst, all these preventable deaths constitute a crime against humanity.

Members of Congress (and, of course, Presidents) regularly tell Americans to “support the troops”. Meanwhile, these same hypocrites are killing the troops through their apathy and negligence.

Ninety percent of U.S. military personnel suffering from PTSD would apparently benefit from MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, currently in a Phase III clinical trial with the FDA. Up to two-thirds of these veterans would/could be cured. Lives would be saved.

A Phase III clinical trial is past the “proof of concept” stage. It is mass-testing of an already successful drug therapy.

Fraudulent drug regulations

Meanwhile, in Washington la-la land, non-toxic and non-addictive MDMA remains classified as a Schedule 1 narcotic: “a high potential for abuse [and] no currently accepted medical use”.

On what basis do member of Congress ignore the official findings of medical efficacy of MDMA by their own drug regulatory body, the FDA? A government that constantly lectures its citizens to “follow the science” is choosing to completely ignore science.

Neither alcohol or tobacco – both highly toxic and addictive drugs – are classified as Schedule 1. This is despite their high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use for either.

Absolute drug insanity. Legalize the addictive poisons that kill people. Ban the safe substances that save lives.

There is no possible way to rationalize the U.S. drug classification of MDMA with the actual scientific and medical facts.

Unless the members of Congress who are maintaining MDMA as a Schedule 1 narcotic wish to plead mental incapacity, the choice of Congress to ignore the science on MDMA (and other psychedelic drugs) can only be rationalized as rampant corruption.

At best, a human rights violation. At worst, a crime against humanity.