From Taboo to Treatment: The Trip Toward Psychedelic Drug Legalization in Australia

• In Event: Trending Issues in Public Administration

Abstract

Psychedelic-assisted therapy had been considered a fringe practice since the 1970’s when countries began creating unified regulatory frameworks for controlled substances. Potential medicinal benefits of psychedelics have been taken more seriously over the past decade, as regulatory agencies throughout the world began to greenlight clinical trials. The greatest victory for the psychedelic liberalization movement came in February 2023 with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration’s legalization of MDMA and psilocybin therapies. Despite an emerging literature on contemporary psychedelic drug liberalization, scholars have yet to examine the pathway through which Australia legalized psychedelic-assisted therapy. In this paper I argue that Australia’s reconceptualization of psychedelic drugs as a mental health tool rather than crime control problem was brought about by epistemic communities of psychedelic scientists leveraging their clinical findings in a manner that changed political connotations around psychedelics. I utilize a mixed-methods approach of historical process tracing and media sentiment analysis to demonstrate that scientific innovation was the critical variable in shaping cultural perceptions of psychedelics in Australia, which in turn created a hospitable political environment leading to regulatory reform.

Author

• Giuliano Espino, Framingham State University