From Charles Sawyer, Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Graham Lawton mentions that synthesising medical-grade psilocybin is “staggeringly expensive” (19 August, p 42). The significant cost is complying with the regulations for working with a scheduled substance. The very similar synthetic drug sumatriptan is routinely prescribed for migraine relief, and psilocybin is a simpler compound. And can't psilocybin be purified to medical grade from natural sources?
The editor writes:
• Robin Carhart-Harris tells us that only synthetic psilocybin qualifies as medical grade.
