PAREA Promotes Psychedelic Access and Research Across Europe

BERLIN—Patient advocacy groups, psychedelic foundations, and scientific organizations across the 27-member European Union (EU) have banded together to promote the use of psychedelic drugs to treat serious disorders.

The Psychedelic Access and Research European Alliance (PAREA), launched in June 2022, is based in Brussels and led by Tadeusz Hawrot, its Founder and Executive Director. 

British neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt, FSB, FMedSci, chairs PAREA.  It also has 2 vice-chairs: Deirdre Ryan, President of Pain Alliance Europe, a patient advocacy organization, and Frédéric Destrebecq, Executive Director of the European Brain Council.  

Support for Clinical Trials 

The organization focuses on “prescription use within a clinical context,” said Hawrot, and supports the need for rigorous clinical trials to confirm that psychedelics are safe and effective drugs.

“We aim to create a wider ecosystem by design as part of our membership structure,” Hawrot told AJEM during the INSIGHT 2023 conference, which took place from August 31 through September 3, 2023, in Berlin. “If you want to think about meaningful access as part of the health care system, you need to win trust and broad engagement from groups like the medical professions.”

Among PAREA’s 13 members are institutions like the MIND Foundation; patient advocacy groups such as the European Federation of Neurological Associations (which represents individuals with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurologic diseases); and professional organizations like the European Psychiatric Association.

Hawrot has a master’s degree in theology and did post graduate studies in public relations at the Warsaw School of Economics in his native Poland. Although his background has little to do with his current job, Hawrot said, “It left a taste of transcendence in my mouth, a way of looking at the world.”

Medical cannabis is not part of PAREA’s focus. Rather, PAREA focuses on psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)—the “classic psychedelic drugs,” Hawrot said—as well as 3,4-methyl-enedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and ketamine.

PAREA itself is very small, operating on an annual budget of around US $100,000. It is pushing for more regulatory incentives and public money to be allocated for research into the benefits of psychedelic drugs. 

“Horizon Europe is the EU’s main instrument to fund research and innovation. Its 7-year budget is €100 billion [US$106.9 billion], but current funding for psychedelics at the EU level is close to zero. It got just a couple hundred thousand euros for a small project,” Hawrot told AJEM. “What we want is proper project funding and clinical research.”

Reducing Stigma

The main obstacle, he said, is that for decades, “there was bad press about psychedelics, so obviously they’re considered dangerous drugs.” This perception of little or no therapeutic benefit persists.     

“One of the main things we do is educate people. We really want to have broad support from the public,” Hawrot explained. “We want the public to see psychedelics as effective and legitimate modes of mental health treatment. Most people are still unaware of the scientific progress we’ve made in the last 10 years and that psychedelics are now viewed seriously as an alternative for existing mental health treatment.”

At present, psychedelic drugs are banned across all EU member states (except for scientific research), apart from the Netherlands, where magic truffles are legal.¹ Portugal has decriminalized all illicit drug use—with possession considered an “administrative” offense rather than a criminal one—but has not outright legalized it. 

Around the end of 2023, Hawrot expects the announcement of a major EU-funded project to launch psychedelic clinical trials in palliative care for end-of-life anxiety. 

“This is an area which has been very neglected,” he said. “There isn’t much we can offer such patients, but at least psychedelics could improve their mental health.”