(Part 1 of a three-part series)
Psychedelics as a field have seen great progress over the past several months, from positive results in clinical trials to MAPS’s MDMA trial for PTSD and compass CMPS, Psilocybin trial for treatment-resistant depression For many reforms at the state level in America
According to Chambers USA, Benzinga had the opportunity to interview Joshua Horn, co-chair of Fox Rothschild’s cannabis practice group and one of the country’s leading cannabis lawyers.
One of the first things to come up during the conversation was the development of psychedelic services in the two US states where these substances have been legalized –Oregon And colorado— and parallels that can be drawn from the legalization of cannabis.
Oregon has begun to receive applications for psychedelics therapy training as well as psychedelics services facilities in keeping with Measure 109, although some locations have “opt-out” of the enactment of psilocybin services in their areas.
See also: Oregon Update: Psilocybin Therapy Service Implementation, From Concept to Reality
“I think it’s really state-specific to Oregon in these instances, and the fact that the way it’s going doesn’t surprise me,” Horn told Benzinga. “It’s really like therapy cannabis Across the US, in the sense that many programs had provisions for municipalities to choose whether or not they wanted to participate in the program.
Medical Psychedelics Vs. medical cannabis
Horn said all states with some sort of legalized medical psychedelic will eventually be phased out the way medical cannabis is, as well as Oregon becoming educational for others who are looking to do the same.
See also: Senators take bipartisan action to legalize medical marijuana in North Carolina
The difference, he says, is that the medical psychedelics program will probably face more resistance.
“I think people still equate psychedelics with the 60s, the hippie movement in America and elsewhere,” said Horn. “And people lose sight of the fact that prior to that generation, these substances were successfully used for medical purposes, including LSD being used as a psychiatric treatment,
He said the industry will face the challenge of educating the public in such areas as low-dose psilocybin’s potential to relieve mood and other psychiatric disorders.
In contrast, Horn says, “People haven’t always seen cannabis as a big deal, while a hallucinogen, people have these wild ideas about what it is and what it does to you.”
Bills in Colorado and Oregon, calling them “natural” psychedelics, have started down this educational path.
“Most are thrown out of the ground. Even LSD, which comes from a fungus called ergot, has to go through a second process to reach the true psychedelic. But I think that’s what appeals to people, that it’s a natural therapeutic.
This may be the reason why, when combined with the scientific evidence, psilocybin is more present in bills than the more clinical-stage advanced MDMA.
Horn believes that’s why cannabis enjoys public support across America. “Because again, this is a product you can see growing in the ground, so you can understand it better than something that came out of a lab. I think that’s why people look at it so positively.”
But besides the fact that psilocybin is a natural substance that can be grown in one’s backyard versus the in-lab, standardized production of MDMA, Horn thinks another reason for psilocybin’s victory so far is that MDMA is abused. Has a history of being
See also: A Brief History of MDMA: From CIA to Psychedelic Therapy
“And that abuse was widely reported. It certainly was in the ’80s, and during the ’90s, because you had these rave parties where everybody took MDMA. And those people at all who either grew mushrooms or got some mushrooms and ate them in the solitude of their home,” he said. “And I think MDMA was more important in my opinion than psilocybin at the time was available.”
Could psilocybin consumption eventually resemble cannabis?
“If administered through micro doseswhich is what people usually do with mood disorders, so I think maybe,” he says. “But my concern is that anything — alcohol, gambling, tobacco — all of these things can be abused: If these psilocybin clinics are being set up in such a way that you can buy an ounce of mushrooms, then I think that system could be kind of subject to abuse if you can only get a microdose at a dispensary.
Photo: Benzinga edit with photos by flamemetric, ayoshi597, Giselle Yasher, baxika, and freedomz on Shutterstock.
next: Psychedelics education, redefinition and decriminalization as seen by Fox Rothschild Cannabis Partner