Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Crime and Policing of 17 June 2021, Official Report, Column 531, on the Misuse of Drugs Act, what criteria her Department has applied or plans to apply when making an assessment as to whether psilocybin has a proven clinical and medical use for the purposes of determining whether to adapt the relevant legislation.
There is an established process for the development of medicines, which enables medicines (including those containing Schedule 1 drugs such as psilocybin) to be developed, evaluated in clinical trials and licensed based on an assessment of their safety, quality and efficacy.
The Government recognises that a number of studies into the potential use of psilocybin as part of the treatment for mental health conditions have been or are being conducted in the UK. However, medicines based on psilocybin have not yet been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) which would address safety, quality and efficacy concerns. If a psilocybin-based medicine is made available following an assessment of its quality, safety and efficacy by the MHRA, the Home Office will seek and then consider advice provided by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on its scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 as soon as possible. Such advice is a statutory requirement and will be considered before any decision is taken on scheduling under the 2001 Regulations.