The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland is at the forefront of psychedelic drug research in the United States. In 1999, Dr. Roland R. Griffiths began a research program at Hopkins to study psilocybin. Since then, he and other researchers have been studying its use in the areas of treating psychological distress in cancer patients and smoking cessation, among others.
Recently, Dr. Giffiths and other Hopkins researchers authored a pioneering article in the journal Neuropharmacology calling for the reclassification of psilocybin from schedule I to schedule IV. Their rationale is based on psilocybin passing the current phase III clinical trials being conducted by COMPASS Pathways which are evaluating its use for treatment-resistant depression. This work has recently been given breakthrough treatment status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).