Psilocybin and Animal Testing: Charting an End to the Use of Animals in Drug Development Research

Psilocybin is the primary psychoactive compound in "magic mushrooms"; it has been used by humans for millennia, it is in promising clinical trials with humans and used in legalized psilocybin-assisted therapy, and researchers use and are further developing human-based methods with cutting-edge technologies.However, researchers are still allowed to conduct unreliable and distressing psilocybin experiments on animals and receive government funding for them.Laws and policies fail to ensure reductions in animal use or improvements in animal welfare in testing, or the use of effective, humanrelevant alternative methods.This Article argues that policymakers should address the evolving space around psilocybin research and prohibit animal use in psilocybin studies, as well as use this context as a trailblazer for changing laws and policies to reduce animal testing in research for drug development more broadly, for the benefit of both human health and animal welfare.