Marijuana Moment: A Single Dose Of Psilocybin Appears To Safely Treat Cocaine Addiction, New Study Published By American Medical Association Study Shows

[Tokeativity]

A single dose of psilocybin, coupled with psychotherapy, appears to be a “safe and efficacious” treatment option for people with cocaine use disorders (CUD), according to a new study published by the American Medical Association (AMA).

The findings about the psychedelic, published in JAMA Substance Use and Addiction on Thursday, are especially promising given that “no medications have been proven effective” in the treatment of CUD.

Psilocybin-assisted therapy could represent a solution to that “elusive” problem, researchers at the University of Alabama, Johns Hopkins University and the Karolinska Institute found.

For the randomized, quadruple-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 36 participants who met the diagnostic criteria for cocaine use disorder were screened and received psychotherapy incorporating cognitive-behavioral treatment one month before and one month after an “all-day investigational drug treatment session” with psilocybin.

During the medication session, participants were randomly assigned either 25 mg of psilocybin per kilogram of body weight or a placebo.

Researchers found that, compared to the placebo group, “psilocybin-treated participants showed significantly greater percentages of cocaine abstinent days, higher rates of complete abstinence from cocaine, and a decreased risk of cocaine lapse over time.”

Abstinence among participants was verified through urinalysis.

“These findings suggest psilocybin shows promise as a novel treatment for cocaine use disorder.”

“Whereas pharmacotherapies have been developed for several substance use disorders, medications for stimulant use disorders remain elusive,” the study authors said. “This randomized clinical trial is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that psilocybin coupled with psychotherapy may be safe and efficacious in the treatment of CUD.”

The findings from the study “are a potentially important advancement in the treatment of CUD, a condition for which there are no approved pharmacotherapies and limited psychosocial interventions,” they wrote.

The study is also notable in that it involved participants from demographics that haven’t historically been adequately represented in psychedelics research; that is, Black and participants of lower socioeconomic status were recruited for the research.

“The representation of vulnerable populations in psychedelic clinical trials has been a crucial ongoing concern,” the researchers wrote, adding that a “recent systematic review found that participants in US-based psychedelic trials typically had higher socioeconomic status than the general population.”

“The present study demonstrates that psilocybin treatment can be feasibly implemented with Black and socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals vulnerable to the adverse impacts of CUD but understudied in psychedelic research,” the study said.

All told, the study concluded that “psilocybin appeared to be safe and efficacious for treating cocaine use disorder among individuals from underrepresented and vulnerable populations,” though additional research “is warranted to replicate and expand these findings.”

The research is being published about two months after AMA released a separate study finding that one dose of psilocybin combined with therapy is associated with “significantly increased long-term abstinence” from cigarettes compared to nicotine patches. That indicates the psychedelic “holds potential in the treatment of tobacco use disorder,” the researchers said.

As psychedelics policy reform advances in state legislatures across the U.S. and in Congress, Americans have shown growing interest in exploring the therapeutic potential of substances like psilocybin. To that point, a RAND Corporation analysis recently found that nearly 10 million American adults microdosed psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD or MDMA in 2025.

A scientific review published by AMA last year that use of psilocybin has “surged” in the U.S. in recent years amid the decriminalization movement and in light of “promising clinical trial results” on its therapeutic potential. But the paper also pointed out that current federal laws present “a major barrier” to researchers gaining a better understanding of the psychedelic substance’s true impacts.

Meanwhile, another study from last year found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy “showed significant reductions in alcohol consumption and high smoking cessation rates” and has potential to lessen opioid dependence.

In 2024, meanwhile, two other studies—including one with contributions from a top federal drug official—examined psychedelics and alcohol use disorder (AUD).

One found that a single dose of psilocybin “was safe and effective in reducing alcohol consumption in AUD patients,” while the other concludes that classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD “have demonstrated potential for treating drug addiction, especially AUD.”

The National Institutes of Health that year also announced that it would put $2.4 million toward funding studies on the use of psychedelics to treat methamphetamine use disorders—funding that came as federal health officials noted sharp increases in deaths from methamphetamine and other psychostimulants in recent years, with fatal overdoses involving the substances rising nearly fivefold between 2015 and 2022.

In 2023, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced a $1.5 million funding round to further study psychedelics and addiction.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has recently taken steps to explore the therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as ibogaine, which has been touted as a potentially life-saving treatment option for people suffering from serious mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder.

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Other research has also suggested that psychedelics could unlock promising new pathways to treat addiction. A first-of-its-kind analysis in 2023 offered novel insights into exactly how psychedelic-assisted therapy works for people with alcohol use disorder.

In 2024, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), identified the treatment of alcohol use disorder as one of a number of possible benefits of psilocybin, despite the substance remaining a Schedule I controlled substance under U.S. law.

The agency highlighted a 2022 study that “suggested that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.” The research found people who were in psilocybin-assisted therapy had fewer heavy-drinking days over 32 weeks than the control group, which NCCIH said “suggests that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.”

Image element courtesy of Dominic Milton Trott.

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