Although these requirements will limit access, the agency’s decision represents progress towards making psychedelic therapy more mainstream. “This is a baby step in the right direction, and what it does is allow us to do things in an appropriately safe way for everyone… and if necessary, take a step back as well,” Vinay Lakra, President of The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, tells The Guardian.

Some experts believe these new laws don’t go far enough, and that psychedelic treatments should be made available to a broader swath of individuals—not just those suffering from treatment-resistant depression and PTSD—given that there’s evidence for their efficacy in treating a number of other conditions, including substance abuse, anorexia nervosa, generalized anxiety disorder, and end-of-life anxiety. These advocates hope this initial rescheduling will be closely followed by an expansion to accommodate a greater number of those in need of psychedelic treatment.

But even without broader legalization, these initial changes in Australian policy—which are similar to those currently being explored in smaller jurisdictions such as Oregon and Colorado—help to reduce stigma that can hinder research and access. “The safe ‘re-medicalization’ of certain historically illicit drugs is a very welcome step away from what has been decades of demonization,” says David Caldicott, Emergency Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Medicine at the Australian National University. “In addition to a clear and evolving therapeutic benefit, it also offers the chance to catch up on the decades of lost opportunity in delving into the inner workings of the human mind, abandoned for so long as part of an ill-conceived, ideological ‘War on Drugs’.”