Critics encourage use of less risky alternatives.

The term “magic mushrooms” typically conjures images of hippies in tie-dyed t-shirts tripping out while listening to psychedelic rock music during the 1960s. However, the reputation of the fungi that is synonymous with the counterculture is changing.

Recent scientific studies at leading academic institutions point to promising results in the use of psilocybin, the hallucinogen in these mushrooms, for treating some of the most challenging mental health issues as well as addiction. This shift in mindset has also resulted in some cities and states moving to decriminalize possession of “shrooms.”

After nearly 20 years of research with psychedelics, Johns Hopkins Medicine announced the launch of a $17 million privately funded research center to study the potential for the drugs to treat severe mental health and addiction issues. The announcement follows the work of two professors who gave psilocybin to more than 350 volunteers who suffered from depression, anxiety or addiction. The ultimate goal of the center is to focus on the most challenging problems such as Alzheimer’s disease, opioid addictions and major depression and anxiety.

Some test subjects shared their experiences with psilocybin during a recent segment of CBS’s 60 Minutes newsmagazine. All reported relief from debilitating depression and addictions to smoking and alcohol. One woman who had advanced cancer said she no longer feared death.

“This is extraordinarily interesting” the center’s director and professor of behavioral biology, Roland Griffiths, told reporter Anderson Cooper. “It’s unprecedented and the capacity of the human organism to change. It was just astounding.”

Researchers say the drug quiets two parts of the brain that talk to each other while opening up communication lines among parts of the brain that don’t. This results in a loss of identity and accounts for the subject’s ability to perceive things differently.

Subjects, who are screened for psychotic behavior, are given large doses of the drug and monitored for six hours by a trained guide while in a special study room. They lie on a couch with a blanket, sleep mask and wear headphones that play classical or choral music.

Griffiths and his assistant director, who won FDA approval for the studies in 2000, told CBS that about a third of the subjects reported unpleasant experiences while on the drug. He said they have no way of predicting who will have a pleasant, deeply spiritual experience and who will have a “bad trip.”

However, those who reported nightmarish experiences said those proved to be the key to improving their outcomes.

Stories like these, along with the growing acceptance of medical marijuana, have prompted some cities to relax laws dealing with possession of such mushrooms.

In May, Denver voters passed a ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin and direct local law enforcement to give psychedelic mushrooms the lowest arrest priority for adults 21 and older. The council in Oakland, California, also voted to loosen its mushroom laws soon after Denver. Advocates in other parts of California and in Oregon now are pushing for the same.

In Florida, the situation is complicated. Possession of psilocybin remains illegal. However, in 1978 the Florida Supreme Court found that mushrooms could not be reasonably found to be “containers” of the drug. The court essentially held that if the Florida Legislature wished to outlaw wild psilocybin mushrooms, it would have to name them in the law. So far, lawmakers have not done so.

This is why when Florida Fish and Wildlife officers catch suspected “Shroom hunters,” they typically charge them with removing plant life from a wildlife management area, as it’s hard to prove they intended to use the mushrooms to get high.

Reformers hope that the research will change the stereotypes related to psychedelics, which were banned from being studied in 1970 after they became equated with the hippies and liberalism. Also, scandal resulted after it became known that the CIA gave LSD to people without their knowledge in an attempt to develop a mind control program during the 1950s and 60s.

Critics say that other treatments are available that work on depression, including ketamine, a common anesthetic that won FDA approval for depression after researchers at Yale University spent two decades studying it. This year, it came out in the form of a nasal spray that patients give themselves while in a physician’s office.

“Depression is a brain disease,” said Robert Pollack, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist from Fort Myers. “It’s not just a moment in time.”

The Yale studies have shown that depression is caused by abnormalities of the neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate, which are responsible for most activities in the brain. Ketamine, which Dr. Pollack offers at his practice, triggers glutamate production.

He also expressed concerns that the recent coverage of psilocybin studies might endanger lives by encouraging people to experiment on their own.

“The media just sensationalizes this because it’s about psychedelic drugs,” he said. “It’s irresponsible journalism.”

If you want to know just how dangerous psychedelics can be, he said, “Ask any emergency room doctors who treated patients who took LSD in the 1960s and 70s. The problems they saw were terrible.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported some disconcerting news last month when it released the results of a study on drug overdose deaths among American women ages 30 to 64.

The study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on January 10, found that death rates in this group skyrocketed 260 percent from 1999 to 2017.

According to the study investigators, who reviewed death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System, the death rate among women rose from 6.7 deaths per 100,000 people, or 4,314 total overdose deaths, in 1999 to 24.3 per 100,000, or 18,110 deaths, in 2017.

(Although not investigated by the study, some researchers suggest similar increases in overdose deaths are being seen in American men.)

The study also looked at the types of drugs responsible for the overdose deaths. Investigators found huge increases in deaths involving heroin, as well as those caused by synthetic opioids and by benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium, drugs primarily used to treat anxiety.

These statistics highlight the horrendous problem with addition to prescription medications, particularly opioid painkillers, this country now faces. Our first reaction might be to try to find someone – doctors, insurance companies or the pharmaceutical industry – to blame for the problem. However, your brain might be the most culpable.

When it comes to opioids in particular, anyone can become addicted. When you take these drugs, they activate powerful reward centers in your brain. They release those feel-good endorphins, which dull your perception of pain and enhance feelings of pleasure. They also create a sense of wellbeing.

When these drugs wear off, however, so do those good feelings. But you want those feelings to continue, so you keep taking the drugs as prescribed until you develop a tolerance to them. That’s when the dose you’re taking no longer provides the same good feelings they used to and that you desire.

At that point, you might start taking more medication than prescribed or taking it more often. Eventually, you find it impossible to make it through the day without the drug. You feel you simply can’t live without it. That’s addiction.

If your doctor prescribes an opioid pain medication, and you take it as directed, you decrease your risk for becoming addicted. But some of the more than one-third of all Americans in chronic pain do get addicted, and there are often warning signs that they’re in trouble. Here are seven warning signs of painkiller addiction courtesy of WebMD.

1. You think about your medication a lot. – You’re preoccupied with when you can take your next dose and whether you’ll have enough medication to get you through.
2. You take different amounts than your doctor prescribed. – As mentioned, you take more than prescribed or take it more often than prescribed.
3. You “doctor shop.” – You try to find different physicians who will give you prescriptions for the painkillers when your own physician restricts your supply.
4. You get medication from other sources. – You order the drugs over the Internet, steal them from relatives or friends, or buy them on the street.
5. You’ve been using the painkillers for a long time. – You’re still taking the painkillers long after the pain should have gone away, or you’re taking them because of the way they make you feel.
6. You feel angry when anyone talks to you about your use of the drugs. – You get irritated or defensive whenever anybody approaches you about taking the medication.
7. You’re not quite “yourself.” – You stop taking care of yourself like you used to. You’re less concerned about your appearance. You’re moody, angry, nervous or jittery. You sleep more than usual, and you ignore your responsibilities.

If you suspect you have an addiction problem, seek help. Talk to your doctor. He or she can recommend an addiction recovery center, or you can call a center directly.

You can also call 800-662-HELP (4357). This is the national helpline run by the US government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This administration provides free, confidential information and referrals for substance abuse and mental health services.

The most important thing is that you be honest with yourself and your doctor about your drug use. And if you think you have a problem, open up and seek help. Don’t become another number in next year’s overdose death statistics.