TIMOTHY LEARY’S ALIVE –
May 26, 2026 – Results from a new clinical trial show that a single dose of psilocybin could be an effective treatment for cocaine addiction. The mechanism that probably makes psilocybin work for cocaine might also work for many classes of addictive substances, experts say. Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuroscience researcher who has studied how psychedelics work in the brain, believes psychedelics increase neuroplasticity and psychological plasticity – or the ability to change thinking and behavior. He says addictions inherently involve a resistance to change rigid, impulsive behaviors.
Gabrielle Agin-Liebes, a clinical psychologist at the Yale School of Medicine, notes that “psilocybin is different” from most addiction medications that “target the same neurochemical systems as the substance itself”. Medications for opioid use disorder act on the same receptors as opioids; nicotine patches replace the nicotine in tobacco in a safer form.
