Magic mushrooms are helping cancer patients in study after study, possible FDA approval imminent

A continuous bevy of studies continue to populate, regarding the use of psilocyben, MDMA and other psychedelics, in an effort to combat depression and the fear of death.  One, such, recent study involves a cancer patient on chemotherapy.

In 2010, Dinah Bazer, a 60-year-old ice skating teacher and former bank IT programmer was constantly in fear of a resurgence of her cancer, citing feelings of being "totally consumed with fear and anxiety."

 Never a religious person, she had metaphysical shifts when she partook in a 2011 study utilizing psilocyben.  40 minutes after beginning the treatment, in a dentist office-like setting, she began to experience something she'd never felt before.

"I visualised my fear as physical mass in my body," a black concentration, she said. She became angry, volcanic. She screamed. "Get the f- out!"

Still, not ever considered religious, she continued.  "I was bathed in God's love, and that continued for hours," she said. "I really had no other way to describe this incredibly powerful experience."

The drugs have continued to alter people, bringing them out of the depths of depression.

"This is a potential pathway to clinical approval," said Roland Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at John's Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, who led a similar study and is one of the pioneers in the modern era of psychedelic research.

"But that [approval] requires the next step of going to the FDA and getting permission to move forward," he explains.

We are close.  As studies continue to pile up, the evidence provides a safe place for regulators to give the green light to an ultimately amazing substance.