Melbourne will be play host to the worlds first psychedelic drug therapy centre that’ll look at the benefits of psychedelics in medicine.

According to Mixmag, the ‘The Pschae Institute’ will be headed up by a global team of researchers. These scientists and experts come from a range of academia including King’s College London, University of Toronto and the University of Zurich.

The goal of the institute will be researching and running pre-clinical and clinical trials of various psychedelics to treat mental health disorders. Substances tested will be magic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA as well as ayahuasca.

Why psychedelics? There is a demand for advanced therapies with fewer side effects than traditional medications. It’s also believed that psychedelics can address the root cause of mental health problems versus just medicating and reducing symptoms.

Co-Director Associate Professor of the ‘The Pschae Institute’ Daniel Perkins said;

“It’s an exciting time for research into psychedelics, with a growing body of rigorous scientific evidence indicating that these substances may provide a potent new class of treatments for mental health disorders and possibly other medical conditions.

“Today, many people with mental health conditions are becoming aware of this research and in desperation are accessing black market psilocybin, or flying to countries like Peru to use ayahuasca in non-clinical settings.

“The significant opportunity for us at Psychae Institute is to meaningfully increase the scientific and clinical evidence supporting the safe use of these compounds as therapies to eventually achieve drug registration with global regulators including the US Food and Drug Administration.”

Development of therapies will begin this year with clinical studies to follow in 2022.

For a more in-depth conversation of the connection between Mental Health and psychedelics watch this TED talk by Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic