Did psychedelics impact pilot accused of trying to bring plane down?

(NewsNation) — An off-duty pilot accused of attempting to bring a plane down mid-air reportedly said he consumed psilocybin mushrooms 48 hours prior to the flight.

Did the so-called magic mushrooms have anything to do with his alleged attempted murder?

According to the National Library of Medicine, peak effects from psilocybin tend to set in an hour to an hour and a half after consumption and disappear within six hours. Meaning, suspect Joseph David Emerson was probably not experiencing a psychedelic “trip” when he actually got on the flight.

Emerson also reportedly told police he believed he was having a nervous breakdown and had not slept for 40 hours. He admitted he became depressed approximately six months prior to the mental breakdown. And according to the court filings, Emerson allegedly said “I’m not OK” just before his attempt to shut down the engine.

The documents also state he told a flight attendant to restrain him or “it would get really bad.” and another flight attendant reported hearing him say, “He messed everything up and that he tried to kill everybody.”

Potential benefits of psychedelics

Decades after psychedelic drugs were outlawed as dangerous, researchers, celebrities and athletes have been using them to treat a variety of mental health issues, including PTSD, depression and addiction.

Neurologist Dr. Thomas Pitts told NewsNation in June that using psychedelics isn’t that new of an idea.

“The only reason why we’re talking about this is stigma — not scientific fact,” he said. “We know that manipulating serotonin is the basis for most of our pill-based, conventional antidepressant therapies.”

It’s not just the manipulation of serotonin levels that makes Pitts believe in the benefits of diagnosed psychedelics; it can be the “trip” itself.

Recent efforts to decriminalize psychedelics

Psychedelics have rapidly gained popularity for mental health treatments, and the research on these drugs’ effectiveness has been promising.

Psychedelics are illegal on the federal level and have only been legalized in a dozen jurisdictions across the nation, from the states of Oregon and Colorado to small towns in Massachusetts.

At the forefront of a growing movement is New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who over the summer, dished out $5 million to build psychedelic drugs up as a mainstream treatment.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been working to get MDMA approved by the FDA this year. If approved, Cohen’s donated money would help PTSD patients receive access to the drug.

He’s not the only major New York sports figure to be involved with psychedelics, either. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers spoke for more than four hours about his psychedelic journey at the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference in Denver — the largest psychedelic conference in history.

The use of psychedelics for medicinal purposes has become a topic that reaches across political party lines, as well.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been pushing the Department of Defense to study the therapeutic potential for service members for years.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, have also advocated for the potential benefits of psychedelics for veterans.

“That is why I’m here once again, actually pushing for further research into psychedelics to treat PTSD, traumatic brain injury and CTE. CTE is, of course, a traumatic brain injury,” Crenshaw said during his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in May.

As a former Texas Republican governor, Perry may seem like an unlikely advocate of psychedelics.

“I’ve seen and talked to these young men who have given literally up their lives for our freedom and I think it makes sense for us to use [these] compounds,” he said. “My reputation is not more important than these young men’s lives. And I’m willing to stand up.”

In 2001, Texas legalized psychedelic medical research as Oregon had already legalized psilocybin, and California was considering it.

“I think that was the right thing to do,” Perry said. “And these young men deserve it. And we need to use every means. I think … to give them a chance to get a recovery.”

There are hundreds of registered clinical trials exploring the effects of psychedelics on a range of conditions.

NewsNation’s Kelsey Kernstine and Devan Markham contributed to this report.