“Now we know how psychedelic drugs work finally! Now we can use this information to, hopefully, discover better medications for many psychiatric diseases,” Dr. Roth said. The ultimate goal of the research, he said, “is to see if we can discover medications which are effective, like psilocybin, for depression, but do not have the intense psychedelic actions.”
There is a growing movement attempting to harness the therapeutic elements of psychedelic substances while eliminating the hallucinogenic effects.
The Bruce Linton-backed Mind Medicine Inc. is one such company. The first product in its pipeline is 18-MC, a derivative of Ibogaine, which has shown promise in treating heroin, alcohol, methamphetamine and opioid addiction.