INTERVIEWS

Under both measures, adults 21 or older diagnosed with a qualifying condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or substance use disorders could legally access laboratory-tested psilocybin.

Newly introduced legislation in Hawaii would create explicit legal protections around the therapeutic use of psilocybin, with eligible patients able to possess and consume the psychedelic under a trained facilitator’s care.

The legislature would authorize the production and use of psilocybin to promote health and wellness; decriminalize, and expunge past offenses involving, psilocybin production, possession, use, and distribution.

Dozens of new studies involving Schedule I and II substances—many of which employ psychedelics—are unable to commence in California, despite having clearance from the FDA, DEA and Institutional Review Boards.

The proposal, from Rep. Brandon Potter (D), would not establish a commercial retail system around psilocybin—at least until after federal reform is enacted.

MAPS Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) has announced a $100m Series A alongside a name change to Lykos Therapeutics.

Those who support cleaving off $42 million in opioid settlement funds to support ibogaine research and drug development have lost a key champion this week as the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission (KYOAAC) sees a changing of the guard. Now, it looks very likely that the project will be shelved.

Advocates were encouraged to see that bicameral negotiators agreed to maintain the psychedelics research provisions championed by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) that were attached to the House version over the summer.

It’s not just a milestone for MAPS: this is the first psychedelic-assisted therapy submitted to the FDA for approval.

A Massachusetts company that bills itself as “the first and only licensed provider of psychedelic health plans” announced on Tuesday that it will cover psilocybin-assisted therapy in states where it’s legal.

A state commission will soon vote to decide whether to commit ten percent of its funds, $42 million, toward a psychedelic-assisted therapy moonshot that could transform treatment for OUD nationally.

A federal appeals court directed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to give a detailed explanation for keeping psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound in psychedelic mushrooms, on the list of the most restricted substances.

Known as the Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative of 2024, the measure is the third psychedelics-related prospective citizen-led measure attempting to qualify for next year’s ballot.

The City Council in Eureka, California, adopted a resolution this week to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi, making enforcement of laws against personal use, cultivation and possession a low priority for police. It’s at least the fifth local jurisdiction in the state to embrace the policy change.

A sad day in the psychedelics community today as news filters out that leading industry neuroscientist, Dr. Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., has passed.

The governor of California has vetoed a bill to legalize certain psychedelics and create a pathway to regulated access — a move that comes at a time when two states have already enacted comprehensive psychedelics policy reform and as two campaigns are working to put the issue on California’s 2024 ballot.

The City Council in Portland, Maine recently voted 6-3 in favor of a resolution deprioritizing local law enforcement for possession, use, cultivation for personal use or sharing psychedelic plants and fungi, placing controlled substances consumption as a public health matter.

There’s been some consistent movement of proposals concerning psychedelics across the United States.

The two-page legislation simply says that no federal funds can be used to “prevent any State or unit of local government from implementing such State’s or unit of local government’s own laws that authorize the use, distribution, sale, possession, research, or cultivation of psilocybin.”

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) this week announced the successful completion of Phase 3 clinical trials for an MDMA treatment to help patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and said it brings the group a major step closer to filing a federal request to bring the treatment to market.