New Zealand gives green light to prescribe magic mushrooms for depression

The nation has now joined Australia in this regard

Rowan Dunne

Published

7 hours ago

The mental health crisis has inspired New Zealand to permit the physician-prescribed usage of psychoactive psilocybin fungi as traditional treatments prove to be inadequate.

The government just announced that it is joining its larger neighbour Australia in permitting the treatment for residents plagued by treatment-resistant depression.

“Kiwis shouldn’t be left counting sheep or desperate for options when other countries are already using these medicines,” said New Zealand’s Associate Minister of Health, David Seymour.

He pointed out that it was a huge win for people with depression who have tried medications and other therapeutics with no avail.

“This is a smart, science-led step forward,” Seymour added. The government is committed to putting patients first, he proudly stated.

For the first time in New Zealand, psilocybin can be prescribed by an approved psychiatrist for treatment-resistant depression. Backed by a growing body of global evidence, psychedelic-assisted therapy is now an option for Kiwis facing the toughest mental health challenges. This…

— David Seymour (@dbseymour) June 19, 2025

News comes almost 2 years after 1st cultivation license issued

Prior to this week’s decision, producing magic mushrooms was only permitted for clinical research purposes in the country. In 2023, the Māori cannabis cultivator Rua Bioscience Ltd (NZE: RUA) obtained the nation’s first-ever license to grow the natural psychedelic.

At the time, Rua highlighted that nobody in New Zealand had ever been able to obtain a prescription. Those days will soon be a distant memory. The goal of the Indigenous-owned company is to use the mushrooms to treat citizens with substance use disorders, highlighting their broad scope of potential applications.

It is worth noting that only one psychiatrist in the whole country has been certified to provide the prescriptions. His name is Dr. Cameron Lacey.

In an interview Wednesday, Lacey stressed the importance of supplementary treatment for residents in conjunction with psilocybin therapy. He thinks local insurance companies will become increasingly interested in the unorthodox treatment.

“All of our evidence to date demonstrates the combination of good quality psychotherapy combined with the psilocybin experience, followed up with further psychotherapy, has been required in order to get the response rate,” Lacey highlighted.

The Czech Republic is another state that recently made headlines with its plan to integrate psilocybin therapy into its national healthcare regimen beginning in 2026.