GOVERNMENT
Move over, liberal western lawmakers —Republican state Sen. T.J. Shope is the guy gunning for legal shrooms in Arizona. Within reason, of course.
The High Chamber Lawmaker wants to take shrooms on trip to governor’s desk
BY MONICA D. SPENCER
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recover from the trauma of his 1969 tour as a Marine in Vietnam. Parsons’ story awakened a new passion for Shope, who also serves on the senate’s Health and Human Services Committee. “Mushrooms in general have allowed [Parsons] to mentally come home from Vietnam all these years later,” Shope told InMaricopa . “I watched that interview with a lot of interest and I thought maybe we ought to consider at least just looking into it, not necessarily even thinking that I was going to run legislation.” ‘Another tool in the toolbox’ If there’s anything the pandemic did for Americans, it made people more aware of their healthcare options and become more open to alternative treatment options, according to Shope. “People with PTSD have told me they’ve tried all these different prescriptions that don’t work, or they don’t like taking pharmaceuticals,” he said. That includes people like Willbanks, who said his medications left him feeling “pretty numb.” “I was on everything from standard antidepressants to different types of sleeping aids to help me sleep through nightmares,” he said. “They all left me feeling awful and pretty numb to just about everything. It wasn’t great.” Treatment options for Arizonans living with serious mental illness or substance abuse issues are few, according to Josh Mozzell, president of the Psychedelic Association of Arizona and a mental health attorney. “People living with major depression, bipolar disorder and PTSD have a lifetime diagnosis and a lifetime of medicine,” he said. “Right now, once you get a diagnosis, you see your doctor every three months and you take a pill every day for the rest of your life, but you don’t necessarily get any better.”
HE FIRST TIME MARLENA Robbins ate magic mushrooms, it wasn’t to see music or hear colors at a jam band concert. It was to cope with
sobriety and trauma. “I grew up in a home with domestic violence, addiction and child abuse,” she said. “I developed toxic habits and turned to alcohol and started abusing it.” Talk therapy helped some. But she needed chemical succor. “I felt it wasn’t going deep enough,” she said. “It wasn’t touching the core of what I needed but couldn’t verbalize.” Some of her loved ones suggested trying psilocybin mushrooms to help process her trauma. One evening, she drank a shroom smoothie — and began to experience waves of colors, euphoria and an acceptance of her past. “I remember lying on the floor and looking up at the ceiling and seeing these rainbow octagons coming at me, and it was beautiful,” she recalled. “Some of the imagery was scary. I said, ‘Thank you for presenting yourself, goodbye.’ And then they were gone.” Alex Willbanks, a Navy veteran from Mesa, had a similar experience following his struggles with prescription medications to treat the post-traumatic stress disorder he developed in combat. “A friend suggested I try mushrooms and it was calming,” he said. “I felt at peace and ease, and even the next day I felt better. It did more in one good evening compared to months of prescription drugs.” Experiences like these inspired Arizona state Sen. T.J. Shope to blaze a path for legalizing psilocybin mushrooms for clinical use through Senate Bill 1570. For the Republican representing Maricopa, the idea emerged from a morning news segment. A few months ago, Shope watched as billionaire entrepreneur Bob Parsons touted psychedelic drug-assisted therapy to help him
depression, PTSD and substance abuse disorders. One study from Johns Hopkins University showed just two sessions could alleviate symptoms for up to one year. “It was unthinkable, like, how could this be happening,” Mozzell said. “And then the studies on bipolar II and PTSD, all this stuff is a revolution in mental health.” Playing catchup Those results aren’t surprising to Robbins, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics and a member of the Navajo Nation. Psilocybin mushrooms, peyote and other psychedelics have a long history interwoven in the ceremonial practices of Indigenous people. For example, the Mazatec in Oaxaca, Mexico incorporate teonanacatl — their word for the psilocybin mushroom, which translates to “the flesh of God” — into their ceremonies. “They have used these medicines forever and know how they’re supposed to be experienced,” she said. “Western medicine is playing catchup trying to figure out what Indigenous people have known forever in how to experience these medicines for healing.”
“Western medicine is playing catchup trying to figure out what Indigenous people have known forever in how to experience these medicines
for healing.” MARLENA ROBBINS
SB 1570 would allow doctors to have an additional option for patients. “Doctors currently have heavy drugs in their toolkit, like Xanax, Zyprexa, OxyContin,” he said. “This bill would allow them to have another tool in their toolbox, whether its psilocybin or, eventually, MDMA.” Studies on psilocybin taken with talk therapy show benefits in treating anxiety,
InMaricopa.com | April 2024
April 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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