POSITIVE NEWS - What went right this week: psychedelics for mental health, plus more
Posted 10th February 2023 • Written by www.positive.news • • • • •
Minds altered on psychedelics for mental health
Australia has become the first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The landmark decision by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration means that MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) and psilocybin – the active compound in ‘magic’ mushrooms – will finally be available on prescription after decades of demonisation.
“In addition to a clear and evolving therapeutic benefit, it also offers the chance to catch up on the decades of lost opportunity in delving into the inner workings of the human mind, abandoned for so long as part of an ill-conceived, ideological ‘war on drugs’,” said Dr David Caldicott, a senior clinical lecturer at Australian National University.
From July, approved psychiatrists will be able to prescribe MDMA for PTSD. Psilocybin has been approved for stubborn cases of depression that have proven resistant to conventional treatments.
More than 300 million people worldwide suffer with depression, with one in five not responding to existing medicines. Trials suggest that psychedelic treatments are most effective when combined with talking therapies.
The world mobilised in aid of Turkey and Syria
Old grudges have been set aside as the world rallies in support of victims of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which rocked the Syrian-Turkish border on Monday.
Nations scrambled to dispatch aid as the death toll rose beyond 19,000 on Thursday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a request for humanitarian aid for Syria, despite the two countries’ warring history and lack of diplomatic relations.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee is coordinating a response by its 15 member charities, including Oxfam and Save the Children. The government has pledged to match donations up to £5m. Donate online here.
An Amazon fightback got underway
An operation to oust illegal miners from the Brazilian Amazon launched this week – a welcome sign that president Lula is delivering on his pledge to protect the rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants.
Government troops set up camp along the Uraricoera river, used by mining mafias to traffic tin and gold from illegal excavations deep in Yanomami tribal lands.
The territory – home to around 30,000 Yanomami – has been the site of conflict since the 1970s, when illegal miners flocked to the region in search of gold. The election in 2018 of right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro brought a new influx of some 25,000 miners, along with disease and bloodshed.
Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, with support from the national guard, has destroyed aircrafts, weapons, boats and heavy plant machinery used by illegal mining crews. Some miners were reported to be quitting the region ahead of the offensive.
Another forest fight saved an ancient London woodland
A community-led fundraising effort has secured £100,000 to save an ancient London woodland from development. The three-acre Gorne Wood in Lewisham, which fell into private ownership, has been plagued by fly-tipping and was being eyed up by housing developers.
Home to endangered wildlife and 400-year-old trees, the site is a rare example of the now fragmented Great North Wood, which once stretched uninterrupted between the River Thames and Croydon.
Local charity the Fourth Reserve Foundation led the fundraiser to buy the site via a compulsory purchase order facilitated by Lewisham council.
Matthew Frith, director of conservation at the London Wildlife Trust, said: “Ancient woodlands like this are the cathedrals of our biodiversity.”
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