A clinical study using mushrooms containing the psychoactive psilocybin to treat methamphetamine addiction has just completed its first phase of trials.
Over the past month the first cohort of participants have undergone sessions at Rangiwaho Marae south of Gisborne.
Jody Toroa, a trustee at Rangiwaho Marae, said the goal of the study is to find a way to care for whānau in the grips of meth addiction, mental illness and PTSD.
“Those things are just an epidemic throughout our communities and we’re all connected with it in one way or another.
“We stepped into this because we’ll do anything that’s going to help our whānau and we’re pretty honest, I mean P is kicking around so many, so many of our whare, so many of our whānau and in our community so we were ready to jump in and awhi [help].”
The fungi at the centre of the research – local varieties of Psilocybe – contain the psychedelic compound psilocybin and is therefore classified as a Class A drug.
Toroa said that fact brings its own tensions but they can look towards the examples of other indigenous people around the world.
In North America, indigenous people have used the peyote cactus, which contains psychoactive compounds, in religious ceremonies for millennia. In the modern day there are exemptions allowing for the use of peyote in religious rites.
“We just want to move away from all the other connotations that come with the taonga [mushroom],” Toroa said.
The marae as well as biotechnology company Rua Bioscience obtained New Zealand’s first license to cultivate the indigenous fungi in 2023.
The collaboration named Tū Wairua has partnered with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) and Mātai Medical Research Institute to explore the therapeutic potential of Psilocybe.
Dr Patrick McHugh, lead investigator for the study and based at Mātai Medical Research Institute in Gisborne, said the first group of Phase I trial participants had successfully completed the preparatory process and an experiential session with the taonga [mushroom] at Rangiwaho Marae.
“The third part of the process is integrating the experience into everyday life over the coming weeks and months” said Dr McHugh, who has undertaken psychedelic therapy training himself and works in the field of addictions.
Planning and securing resources for the second phase of clinical trials is currently underway.
“Our next phase, if we’re lucky, we’ve applied to the Health Research Council to actually work with those in recovery, because every time [we] do a media release, you know, a wave of whānau [come forward] wanting to be a part of the clinical trials, there’s such a need out there in our communities,” Toroa said.
One of the best parts of the research has been reclaiming the traditional mātauranga [knowledge] of a taonga species, she said.
With some help they were able to find the fungus on their whenua for the first time. The species has its own tapu [sacred element] and its own special place in the environment, Toroa said.
As a marae whānau they are very sensitive to the impacts on the environment in Tairāwhiti which have flow on impacts on the health of the community, she said.
“As a ropū we’re developing what we hope will be a way of healing and a way of assisting our whānau in their communities.”
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