Drugs & Entheogens

This archive covers progress in drug policy reform, psychedelic-assisted therapy, harm reduction, and the science behind entheogenic substances. From clinical trials to legal milestones, these stories track how researchers, policymakers, and communities are rethinking humanity’s relationship with mind-altering compounds.

Close-up of psilocybin mushrooms in a clinical research setting for an article about psilocybin therapy

New Zealand approves psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression

By / / Good News For Humankind

Psilocybin therapy has received formal approval in New Zealand as a supervised treatment for severe, treatment-resistant depression, making the country one of a small but growing number of nations to authorize the psychedelic compound for clinical use. The decision opens a legal pathway for patients who have exhausted conventional antidepressants and talk therapies — a group estimated to represent roughly one-third of all depression patients globally. Access is tightly structured, requiring licensed clinicians, controlled settings, and follow-up integration support. New Zealand joins Australia, Canada, and several U.S. states in signaling a broader shift in how governments are responding to mounting clinical evidence around psychedelic-assisted mental health care.

A scientist examines a sample in a research laboratory for an article about Texas ibogaine research funding

Texas launches largest state psychedelic research program in U.S. history

By / / Good News For Humankind

Texas ibogaine research just got a 0 million boost, marking the largest state-funded psychedelic research initiative in U.S. history. The Texas Legislature passed HB 3717 with bipartisan support, authorizing supervised clinical trials of ibogaine — a plant-derived compound long blocked by federal Schedule I classification — with a potential 00 million total investment when matched by a participating drug developer. The program prioritizes military veterans and first responders suffering from treatment-resistant PTSD and opioid addiction, populations with few effective options under current medicine. A landmark Stanford study found a single ibogaine dose reduced veteran disability ratings by 88 percent on average, making this funding a significant step toward mainstream clinical validation.

Dried psilocybin mushrooms on a surface for an article about psilocybin therapy legalization in New Mexico, for article on Oregon psilocybin facilitators

New Mexico becomes the third U.S. state to legalize psilocybin therapy

By / / Good News For Humankind

New Mexico’s Medical Psilocybin Act makes the state the third in the U.S. to legalize psilocybin therapy, but its path stands apart from Oregon and Colorado. Rather than a ballot measure, the legislation passed through the state legislature with an overwhelming bipartisan margin of 56 to 8 in the House. The law creates a regulated clinical framework for treating PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, and other conditions, with a dedicated 30,000 equity fund to subsidize access for low-income patients. That combination of legislative flexibility and built-in affordability measures offers a replicable model for other states watching closely.

Silhouette of cannabis leaf, for article on Maryland marijuana pardons

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore set to issue 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions

By / / Good News For Humankind

Maryland’s marijuana pardons just cleared more than 175,000 convictions in a single executive order — the largest state-level pardon any governor has ever signed. Governor Wes Moore framed it as unfinished business from legalization itself, noting that people arrested for cannabis decades ago still carry those records into job interviews, housing applications, and college admissions today. The order falls hardest in favor of Black Marylanders, who were arrested for cannabis at three times the rate of white residents before the state legalized recreational use in 2023. Moore was honest about the limits: a pardon can’t return lost years. But paired with the federal push to reschedule marijuana, it signals a country slowly reckoning with who paid the price of the war on drugs.

Mushrooms, for article on psilocybin public opinion

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans now think using psilocybin is ‘morally positive,’ in dramatic shift in public opinion

By / / Good News For Humankind

Supervised psilocybin therapy just got a remarkable vote of confidence: in a new peer-reviewed survey of 795 U.S. adults, 91% of liberals and 86% of conservatives called its use for psychiatric treatment morally acceptable. That’s the kind of bipartisan agreement you almost never see anymore. Researchers from Oxford, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Granada also found that strong majorities approved of psilocybin to enhance well-being in healthy people, not just to treat illness. The authors suggest compassion-based values help explain the consensus across political lines. As more states move toward legal, supervised psilocybin services, this quiet agreement among Americans hints at a broader, more humane shift in how societies might soon approach mental health.

Empty bottles of alcohol, for article on psilocybin-assisted therapy

First-of-its-kind study reveals how psilocybin helps treat alcohol dependence

By / / Good News For Humankind

Psilocybin-assisted therapy helped 13 people who had struggled with heavy drinking reach the root of what they were drinking to escape, according to new interviews published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Participants described years of self-blame and isolation quieting after their sessions, replaced by something many had never felt toward themselves: compassion. They credited the trained therapists and carefully held setting as much as the medicine itself, calling both essential to feeling safe enough to face old pain. The researchers are honest about the study’s limits, including a mostly white, higher-income participant group. Still, as Oregon and Colorado open legal pathways, these first-person accounts offer a hopeful glimpse of how psychedelic care might one day reach the communities who need healing most.

Silhouette of person holding cannabis leaf, for article on Minnesota cannabis legalization

Minnesota becomes 23rd U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana

By / / Good News For Humankind

Minnesota’s new cannabis law will automatically clear tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions, pairing legalization with one of the most ambitious record-clearing efforts in the country. Adults 21 and older can now possess cannabis under the law Gov. Tim Walz signed in May 2023, making Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize recreational use. What sets it apart is the justice piece: people don’t have to navigate courts to clear their records — the state does it for them, opening doors to jobs, housing, and education long blocked by old convictions. As legalization spreads, Minnesota offers a model that finally asks who bore the costs of prohibition, and who deserves a fresh start.