John Hopkins Medicine announced having received $4 million from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to assist researchers from the University in studying how psilocybin can be used as a therapy to help individuals quit smoking.
This research will be focused on psilocybin normally known as magic mushroom and how the compound affects tobacco addiction.
Such an initiative will definitely prompt leading medical institutions to consider the healing properties of psychedelics since the federal government is now putting its financial support on the initiative.
On this project, John Hopkins Medicine will work with researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and New York University for three years studying a wide range of smokers at several places.
Associate director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Hopkins Medicine, Matthew Johnson, says the funds from NIH will be used to assist expand a research he published several years ago which featured 15 longtime smokers who averaged about a pack a day with each having smoked for over 30 years.
“We knew it was only a matter of time before the NIH would fund this work because the data are so compelling and because this work has demonstrated to be safe. Psilocybin does have very real risks, but these risks are squarely mitigated in controlled settings through screening, preparation, monitoring, and follow-up care,” said Johnson.
