New Zealand

The roots of psychedelic research that affected New Zealand trace back to the mid-20th century scientific developments in Europe. Albert Hofmann's synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1938 and his self-experiment of 1943 initiated a period in which the Swiss firm Sandoz manufactured and distributed LSD (marketed as Delysid) to psychiatrists and researchers around the world. Sandoz’s distribution policy in the late 1940s and 1950s meant that clinicians in a number of countries, including New Zealand, had access to LSD for clinical and experimental use, and the broader international literature influenced clinical thinking in New Zealand in psychiatry and psychology during the 1950s and 1960s.

By the late 1960s and 1970s international concern about recreational use and social harms led to much tighter controls on classic psychedelics. In New Zealand the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and associated regulatory practices brought LSD, psilocybin and related compounds firmly within the controlled substances framework, substantially restricting clinical and research use except under explicit approvals. This mirrored the international scheduling regimes and effectively halted most open clinical research in the country for several decades.

From the 1990s onwards there was a gradual and cautious re-emergence of interest in psychoactive medicines in clinical psychiatry, most visibly with ketamine, which was already established as an anaesthetic but increasingly explored for treatment-resistant depression. The global ‘‘psychedelic renaissance’’ of the 2000s and 2010s — driven by rigorous clinical trials abroad, improved neurobiological models, and new therapeutic protocols combining drug administration with psychotherapeutic support — has stimulated renewed activity in New Zealand. That activity has taken the form of investigator-initiated proposals, ethics committee engagement, small pilot studies, academic discussion, and the growth of private-sector ketamine-assisted therapy services.

Throughout this modern period New Zealand research and policy conversations have emphasised two distinguishing features: adherence to the country’s regulatory and ethics systems (including the Health and Disability Ethics Committees and Medsafe requirements) and the need for meaningful engagement with tangata whenua (Māori). Māori health frameworks, Treaty obligations and tikanga have become central to how contemporary teams design studies, approach consent, and consider benefit–harm assessments for communities and participants.