Watch: Why Australia Is Experimenting With Psychedelics
Psychedelics Are Now Legal in Australia—With a Catch
An activist couple persuaded regulators to clear MDMA and psilocybin for medical use—and became magnets for controversy in the process.
The sun was setting at the Holy Cross retreat center in Melbourne, bathing dozens of students in orange light as they performed breathing exercises. Some lay on the ground, while others joined hands to create a circle around them. As they walked counterclockwise, humming in harmony, someone struck a singing bowl, which sent deep vibrations across the room. A student rang a bell over the heads of those on the floor, tiptoeing to avoid limbs and hair. Overcome with emotion, one young woman began to cry. She stood up and reached out for the leader of the group, Tania de Jong. “You are safe,” De Jong said as they embraced.
The students at the session, held in November, didn’t fit the typical profile of new age seekers. Most were medical professionals, including psychiatrists, nurses and clinical psychologists, who’d paid about A$8,000 ($5,300) each for a 14-week training course in understanding some of Australia’s newest legal therapeutic drugs: MDMA, better known as ecstasy, and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.