Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
A motion moved by the Hon. Jeremy Buckingham was supported by Cate:
(1) That this House notes that:
(a) Australia became the first jurisdiction in the world to allow psychedelic-assisted therapy following a decision of the Therapeutic Goods Administration [TGA] last year;
(b) patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression are showing excellent results when treated with psilocybin as part of psychotherapy;
(c) patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are showing similar excellent progress when treated with MDMA as part of psychotherapy; and
(d) New South Wales has some of the most restrictive conditions in Australia for these treatments and, in particular, there is a requirement that treatments must only take place in a licensed, private mental health class facility.
(2) That this House further notes that:
(a) psychedelic‑assisted therapy can be safely delivered in an outpatient setting, as demonstrated in multiple clinical trials;
(b) inpatient admission unnecessarily increases the cost of an already expensive treatment, which limits access by all but the wealthy;
(c) hospital mental health settings have limited and finite resources;
(d) psychedelic dosing works best when situated in a purpose-designed, calm, quiet and non-clinical‑feeling setting; and
(e) New South Wales requires that a dosing session has to occur at a mental health class private health facility rather than an outpatient day clinic, and that this is not a requirement in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia or the Australian Capital Territory.
(3) That this House calls on the Government to amend the relevant regulations to put New South Wales in line with Victoria and allow psychedelic‑assisted therapy to take place in an outpatient day clinic with a seven-day notification period.
I support the motion moved by the Hon. Jeremy Buckingham and thank him for bringing this matter to this place. I speak as the spokesperson for The Greens on harm reduction and drug law reform. My colleague Dr Amanda Cohn will speak from a mental health perspective. I put on record the history of debate on psychedelics and psychedelic therapy in this place. I went to the launch of Mind Medicine Australia in February 2020 in Melbourne, where the wonderful Professor David Nutt delivered a speech to a packed room. I remember the incredible science. David Nutt is a psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist from London who spent more than five decades studying the impact of various drugs on the brain. He leads a team of scientists from the University of Bristol and Imperial College London. He is incredible in his field. He showed us scans of the brain and its wiring and connection after taking psychedelics. Incredibly, psychedelics switch off the parts of the brain that cause depression.
The need for studies is important. Studies have happened and are happening; the science is irrefutable. I have spoken with people who suffered from clinical depression for over 15 years or more who had psychedelic treatment who say they became a new person after the treatment process with trained psychiatrists. The research also shows that depression can go away for something like eight years. It is incredible. The depression experienced by a few patients in the study did not come back for over eight years. It is wonderful that in Australia the Therapeutic Goods Administration ruled last year on MDMA and psychedelics, but I prefer the original motion moved by the member.
We have such a huge crisis. So many people are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health issues and depression. Experts and leaders in their field are saying that this treatment is absolutely revolutionary. With this mental health epidemic, I do not think we can continue to wait years—and that is what it will take—before we have more psychiatrists and more trained professionals able to use this absolutely groundbreaking medicine. I support the original motion, but The Greens will not vote against the amendment, seeing the mood in the Chamber.