Let doctors use MDMA to treat veterans with PTSD and depression, former ADF boss says

Late last year, the Therapeutic Goods Administration decided against downgrading the classification of psilocybin or MDMA as a prohibited substance to a controlled substance, a move which would have increased patient access.

Barrie is hopeful that the TGA will soon allow the drugs to be more readily accessed to treat PTSD.

But even that limited access is frustrated by the laws of state and territory jurisdictions. In the ACT, for example, laws on recreational use would still hold doctors criminally liable for attempting to treat their patients with MDMA and psilocybin, even with TGA approval.

The Catch-22 exists despite the ACT pushing to decriminalise MDMA and psilocybin more broadly.

Barrie, a retired admiral and board member of Mind Medicine Australia, said if the ACT was successful in decriminalising the drugs, it should also remove any barrier to using the drugs to treat patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression and related post-traumatic stress disorder.

Other nations, including Canada, Switzerland, Israel and the United States, enable a similar level of access to Australia by assessing medical practitioners and their patients on a case-by-case basis.