Another country approves use of ‘magic mushrooms' to treat depression
New Zealand has approved the restricted medicinal use of psilocybin, a hallucinogen found in " magic mushrooms."
The approval is specifically for patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.
Only one psychiatrist, Professor Cameron Lacey, who was behind the first clinical trials of psilocybin, is authorised to prescribe it under strict reporting and record-keeping requirements.
Associate Minister of Health David Seymour hailed the policy change as a "real breakthrough" for individuals who have exhausted other treatment options.
New Zealand joins other regions, including Australia, Switzerland, Oregon, and Colorado, in allowing some form of legal or restricted access to psilocybin for medical purposes.
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The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Turning into a little Finland': chilly New Zealand gets the hots for beachside saunas
On a clear winter morning on the coast of New Zealand's capital, a procession of steaming bodies emerge from a small shed-like building to throw themselves into the frigid sea. Dripping wet, they return to sit in its 100 degree heat and wait for their skin to gather a patina of sweat before bolting back to the cool waters. Back and forth between the extreme temperatures they go, until an hour later they depart dreamy-eyed. The sauna – a mobile unit parked up at Wellington's Worser Bay – is running a roaring trade. Six days a week, from before dawn to well after dusk, Wellingtonians converge there to heat up, relax and socialise. Until recently, New Zealand's saunas were largely tucked away in upmarket spas, grimy gyms and public pools. But in a new – and perhaps a surprisingly late – addition to the nature-loving nation, saunas are popping up on beaches and in back gardens across the country as New Zealanders embrace the steamy ritual. Over the winter months, temperatures in the North Island top out at 10-15C, while in the South Island it's more like 8-10 degrees. Some regions dip below zero while in Wellington the fierce southerly winds can make a cool morning feel Arctic. 'In the winter, you crave that feeling of being warmed to the bone,' says Natalie Keegan, who is sipping on homemade kefir in a patch of sun after a sauna session. But she says it is about more than escaping the winter cold. Keegan loves the sauna because it fosters community, is good for her health and helps her connect with nature. Keegan runs an informal WhatsApp group for roughly 40 women who come together every full moon to sauna and ocean swim. 'It's like a coven,' she laughs. 'You're in a space together sweating, your body is feeling extreme heat, you're able to talk about things you might not usually bring up. It's an environment that creates deeper connection and you're in touch with nature.' Kegaan is not alone. Google searches for saunas have tripled in the last five years and new operators are seeing sessions book out immediately. Michael Burrell started Scenic Sauna two years ago. Initially, locals were suspicious about the sauna and its benefits but that attitude has changed dramatically in the past eight months, he says. His business has gone from relying on a group of diehard sauna goers to flourishing with new converts who are spreading the word. 'We're on the cusp of a boom here,' Burrell says. New Zealand's burgeoning love for the sauna follows a global trend – Australia, the UK and the US have similarly embraced the culture in recent years. Researchers in Finland – home to 3.3 million saunas – have found regular sauna use may be linked to decreased blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease. Other studies have shown regular use may decrease risk of psychosis in a middle-aged male population, while hot and cold sessions could reduce risks of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. At Lyall Bay – 15 minutes from Worser Bay – a woman stands in a towel, coils of hair slicked down on her flushed face. Behind her, a low rain cloud renders the sky and sea milky in the twilight, and another mobile sauna – run by the Sauna Project – glows. 'Its very relaxing, and I always feel more clear-headed afterwards – its a really nice way to start or finish a day,' says the woman, who comes every two weeks with friends. 'Instead of going for a coffee or a catch up after work, we come to the sauna,' she says. The Sauna Project started three years ago in Mount Maunganui on the North Island's east coast, and now has 17 locations across the country. The business also hosts an annual sauna festival. 'We're turning into little Finland,' says the project's Wellington manager, Johan Balzer. 'Its combining something that Kiwis already love – going to the ocean – with something that is exciting and new and makes you feel good,' Balzer says. 'In just one hour you can reset your whole mindset and people are getting really hooked on that.'
Telegraph
21 hours ago
- Telegraph
Everywhere assisted dying is introduced, the safeguards never prove effective
The emotion of watching the progress of the assisted dying Bill through Parliament will differ for every person watching it. For some, it will elicit grief or perhaps fear. For others, hope. For me, watching from afar, it's déjà vu. Before assisted dying was legalised in New Zealand three and a half years ago, it was me speaking in Parliament against its passage. And the debate here is all too spookily reminiscent of what we saw. We, like British MPs, were promised that the eligibility criteria would be tight and that claims of a slippery slope were a 'fallacy'. My work on this issue began when I chaired the New Zealand Parliament's Health Committee inquiry into assisted dying. It was the largest inquiry ever undertaken by the New Zealand parliament and was our nation's most detailed public discussion on this topic. Again and again, I asked questions and probed for the details of how proposed safeguards, which promised to ensure no mistakes were made, would in fact do so. Each time, I was assured that the laws would function to ensure horror cases simply could not occur, that the criteria would never be relaxed, and that this law would be the safest in the world. Listening now to the UK debate, the lines from supporters here are redolent of what I heard back then. Kim Leadbeater, were it not for her broad Yorkshire tones, could well play a Kiwi parliamentarian, breezily dismissing the concerns voiced by my Committee and me. And, if the language matches closely, the proposed 'safeguards' are near-identical. Central to the safeguards in the Kiwi law was the introduction of a body called: 'The End of Life Review Committee'. It broadly mirrors Leadbeater's proposals for a supervisory review body following the removal of the High Court safeguard. In New Zealand, three experts – two health practitioners and one medical ethicist – sit on this Committee. Their role was to review assisted deaths and to scrutinise complex cases where something may have gone wrong. But things did not work out as they were supposed to. One of the Committee's original members resigned over serious concerns about its ability to supervise the implementation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Another member was pushed out, it is thought, because she was raising too many concerns about the operation of the new law. Two out of three members were gone. Both subsequently went public and stated that the Committee's oversight of the law was so limited that wrongful deaths could go undetected. They said they were 'extremely concerned' about how little information they received relating to patients' deaths, leading to them feeling 'constrained to the point of irrelevance'. In one deeply troubling case, the Review Committee was able to establish that a dementia patient, who did not speak English, was approved for assisted dying despite not having an interpreter present for their assessment. The New Zealand experience is closely mirrored in every country where similar laws have been introduced in recent years. In our Antipodean neighbour, Australia, several states have legalised assisted dying in the last few years. Queensland's law was said to have taken extra time to progress through parliament to make sure the law would guarantee that every death was 'truly voluntary', 'without coercion', and with the strictest safeguards. In fact, patients there have killed themselves with others' drugs and, in a scathing judgement, a coroner ruled that it was in fact 'not a well-considered law', but rather had 'inadequate' safeguards that had taken just '107 days to be exposed'. In another case, a woman appeared in court last week, charged with her husband's murder, having admitted to her family that she had administered him three lethal doses of drugs after he told doctors he wanted to 'go on' rather than die via assisted dying. She denies murder, and the case continues. Meanwhile, Oregon – one of the first jurisdictions to legalise assisted dying – has seen its eligibility criteria stretched to include patients with anorexia, diabetes, or arthritis. Around half of those opting for assisted suicide now cite feeling like a 'burden' on others as a motivating factor. None of the parliamentarians voting for those laws did so believing that they were dangerous. In New Zealand, my colleagues certainly did not do so. They had repeatedly been assured that the safeguards were absolute, inviolable, and complete. But, if the experience of those who have passed these laws is anything to go by, British parliamentarians should think very carefully before passing the assisted dying Bill. Safeguards so often promised have proven so rarely effective. If British MPs are not certain that they will work here, my urgent advice, having seen this play out before, would be to reject this Bill today.
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
New Zealand PM Luxon meets China's Xi Jinping
June 20 (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Friday he and China's President Xi Jinping discussed the role of business, education and science to help boost relations between the two countries. "I raised the importance to New Zealand of the international rules-based system, as well as the key role that China can play in helping to resolve global challenges," Luxon said in a statement after meeting Xi Jinping in Beijing.
