U.S. gets its first psychedelics research center

Johns Hopkins is opening a new research center dedicated to psychedelics. Called the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, the facility is the country’s first of its kind and was launched with a $17 million gift from donors. It will focus on better understanding the health effects of psychedelics, including psilocybin, the hallucinogenic substance found in magic mushrooms. In recent years, psychedelics have been suggested as possible treatments for addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other conditions. Even though researchers at the new center have had federal approval to study psilocybin since the early 2000s, most of the drugs Johns Hopkins plans to study are still illegal in the U.S. The world’s first psychedelics research center was launched at Imperial College London in April this year.