Daily Archives: January 5, 2024

Massachusetts officials have certified that activists submitted enough valid signatures to force legislative consideration of a psychedelics legalization initiative before the measure potentially heads to the states 2024 ballot.

Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvins (D) office certified that the campaign Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO) collected 96,277 valid signatures for the reform measureabout 20,000 more than required to put the issue before legislators.

Accordingly, the proposal has now been officially transmitted to the legislature.

This brings psilocybin and other breakthrough psychedelic therapies one big step closer to being available to adults dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges, Jennifer Manley, committee spokesperson, said in a press release on Wednesday.

We look forward to working with legislative leaders on the possibility and promise of natural psychedelic medicine as we continue our work to provide therapeutic access to these groundbreaking treatments, she said. We thank the secretary and his staff for their service reviewing the nearly 100,000 signatures submitted in support, as well as the volunteers and advocates who spent many hours talking to voters around the state.

The announcement came after a longer-than-usual review process, which was due to an especially high volume of ballot proposals that were being circulated for the 2024 election cycle.

The MMHO measure would create a regulatory framework for lawful and supervised access to psychedelics at licensed facilities. It would also legalize the possession and gifting of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ayahuasca, but it would not otherwise provide for commercial retail sales of the substances.

We are on the precipice of a sea change in the way we can help people who may believe they have run out of options, Winthrop police lieutenant Sarko Gergerian, one of the campaigns backers, said. Dont lose hope. These options could be available soon for you and your loved ones here in Massachusetts.

The campaignfirst filed two different psychedelics reform initiatives in August, and after the state attorney general determined thatthey both met the constitutional requirement for ballot placementthe following months, activists decided to pursue the version that included a home cultivation option.

Now that the secretary of state has verified the signature count, the legislature will now have the choice to enact the reform, propose a substitute or decline to act. If lawmakers decide not to legalize psychedelics by May 1, activists would then have until July 3 to submit at least 12,429 additional valid signatures to put the proposal before voters on the November 2024 ballot.

Here are the keydetailsof the Natural Psychedelic Substances Act:

Activists hit a temporary snag in November after local officials flagged problems with a sizable batch of petitions that featured a union logo in violation of the states ballot rules. The campaign responded by deploying hundreds of petitioners for an intensive signature drive, more than making up the difference.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) recently introduced legislation that includes provisions tocreate a psychedelics working group to study and make recommendationsabout the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like psilocybin and MDMA for military veterans.

Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they dont miss any developments. Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.

A local psychedelics reform group, Bay Staters for Natural Medicine (BSNM), says its preparing to offer lawmakers a revised version of the initiative this spring. The group, which previously expressed support for the ballot measure version allowing home cultivation, is now proposing to strike language on creating a regulatory commission to oversee the program, and it also wants to give localities that authority to restrict psychedelics services in their areas.

BSNM has helped enact local policies to deprioritize enforcement of laws against psychedelics in six cities:Salem,Somerville,Cambridge,Easthampton,Northampton, Amherst and Provincetown.

Separately, in the Massachusetts legislature, a Republican lawmakerfiled three psychedelics reform bills in April, including proposals to legalize substances like psilocybin and reschedule MDMA pending federal approval while setting a price cap on therapeutic access.

There are several other pieces of psychedelics legislation that have been introduced in Massachusetts for the session by other legislators, includingseparatemeasuresto legalize certain entheogenic substances for adults.

Anotherbillwould authorize the Department of Public Health to conduct a comprehensive study into the potential therapeutic effects of synthetic psychedelics like MDMA.

Rep. Mike Connolly (D) also filed a bill in 2021that received a Joint Judiciary Committee hearingonstudying the implications of legalizing entheogenic substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca.

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Massachusetts Lawmakers Will Be Forced To Consider Psychedelics Legalization Measure That Activists Petitioned ... - Marijuana Moment

Updated at 2:31 pm ET

The Veterans Affairs Department will soon begin funding research into the use of psychedelics such as MDMA and mushrooms to treat PTSD and depression, the first time the agency has done so since the 1960s.

The announcement answers the call from some veterans and researchers who have long advocated for the potential medical benefits of MDMA and psilocybin, or psychoactive mushrooms. VA on Friday issued a request for applications to its network of researchers, collaborating with academic institutions to solicit proposals to study the impact of using the compounds to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in veterans.

The department made its decision after dozens of VA and other clinicians and scientists met in September to assess the state of existing scientific evidence regarding psychedelic-assisted therapies and recommended VA begin funding its own studies. VA said it would conduct the studies under stringent safety protocols. The Food and Drug Administration granted breakthrough status to MDMA and psilocybin in 2018 and 2019, respectively, allowing for fast-tracked clinical trials.

The calls for VA to examine the use of psychedelics have grown in recent years, ranging from advocacy groups to provider associations to Capitol Hill. The American Legion recently passed a resolution calling on the department to research the subject and train its employees on safe administration. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., as well as Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., have introduced legislation requiring VA to do so.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee recently held a hearing on emerging therapies that could help reduce veteran suicide, during which Carolyn Clancy, who leads VAs health discovery office, said the department was committed to studying new interventions but there was still much to learn, and much yet to be understood, about the potential benefits of psychedelic compounds. VA officials on Friday said the new policy would enable the department to gather that information.

Our nations veterans deserve the very best care, and VA is constantly supporting innovations to deliver that, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said. This is an important step to explore the efficacy of a potential new set of promising treatments that could improve the health and quality of life for veterans.

Shereef Elnahal, VAs undersecretary for health, recently devoted the first episode of the departments New Horizons in Health podcast to the potential benefits of psychedelics for veterans.

Veterans and VA researchers have told us about the potential promise of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions for some time, Elnahal said on Friday. Now is our chance to study this potential method of treating Veterans with PTSD and major depression across the country.

Congress in the 2024 defense authorization bill allowed the Pentagon to study the use of psychedelics within the military population.

VA has permitted research into psychedelic-assisted therapy to take place at department facilities, but only when funded by outside organizations. Under the initiative, VA will fund the research directly. In 2018, VA for the first time allowed patients to discuss their marijuana use with their medical providers. The doctors cannot provide or recommend cannabis products, however.

Disabled American Veterans has also recently called for more research into the medical use of psychedelics for their members.

DAV has long committed to supporting research into new, safe and encouraging treatments and therapies for veterans, DAV National Legislative Director Joy Ilem said in November. We should follow the science wherever it leads us and learn as much as possible to alleviate veterans wartime psychological wounds.

Oregon and Colorado have legalized supervised use of psilocybin, while several large cities, including Washington, have decriminalized it. In a recent peer-reviewed, randomized study published in Nature Medicine, 86% of participants were found to have a clinically meaningful benefit from using MDMA to treat their PTSD.

VA's announcement won bipartisan support from lawmakers.

This is great news for our veterans that lays the foundation for us to save the lives of those that have so generously served our country, said Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas. "We must continue to push forward on these groundbreaking efforts to give those facing these issues another tool in the proverbial toolbox.

Booker, who introduced the VA psychedelic legislation in the Senate, said the compounds have shown "exceptional promise in recent studies" on treating mental health conditions.

"I am pleased to hear that the VA will begin research into these potentially lifesaving therapies so our veterans can receive the care they deserve from the country they fought for, Booker said.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who chairs the Senate VA Committee, is taking more of a wait-and-see approach.

Mental health is one of the most pressing issues facing our country, and countless lives depend on expanding our understanding of and treatment options for mental health conditions," Tester said. "Ill be keeping a close eye on VA as they continue to examine alternative mental health treatments for veterans.

Continued here:

VA to begin researching psychedelics as treatment option for veterans - Government Executive

In a major milestone on the path to expanding access to psychedelic-assisted therapy among the nations military veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has issued a request for applications to conduct in-depth research on the use of psychedelics to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

The department, which said its the first time since the 1960s that it will fund psychedelics research, intends to gather definitive scientific evidence on the potential efficacy and safety of psychedelic compounds such as Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin when used in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat Veterans with PTSD and depression, it said in a press release Friday.

Our nations Veterans deserve the very best care, and VA is constantly supporting innovations to deliver that, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said in announcing the new development. This is an important step to explore the efficacy of a potential new set of promising treatments that could improve the health and quality of life for Veterans.

While VA researchers have already conducted what the department called a limited number of small studies on psychedelics in VA facilities using non-VA funding, it said the forthcoming research will permit the important next step of directly assessing effectiveness and safety of using MDMA and psilocybin-augmented psychotherapy in Veterans.

Veterans and VA researchers have told us about the potential promise of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions for some time, said Shereef Elnahal, VAs undersecretary for health, referencing the premiere episode of an agency podcast that focused on psychedelic-assisted therapy. Now is our chance to study this potential method of treating Veterans with PTSD and major depression across the country.

The VA release also notes that in September, more than 75 VA and other federal clinicians, scientists and policy makers gathered in Denver to assess the state of existing scientific evidence regarding psychedelic-assisted therapies, a conference at which working groups provided advice to VA leadership, including the recommendation for VA to begin funding its own studies into these compounds.

Specific details about the research at the heart of the new request for application (RFA) are scarce, as VA has yet to publish the document online. The department did not immediately respond to a request for information from Marijuana Moment.

In Congress, the two bipartisan co-founders of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus cheered the news as a huge development.

To say this moment is monumental would be an understatement, Rep. Lou Correa (R-CA) said in a statement Friday. Weve been fighting for years to push the VA to research the impact of breakthrough therapies, like psychedelics, on the invisible wounds of our countrys most valiant warriorswith the House passing our amendment to do just that last year. These therapies promise to be one of the largest breakthroughs in mental health treatment in nearly half a century, and, with some reported signs of up to 80% success in treatment, shows a possibility to cure our veterans of their invisible woundsand be the first step toward tackling our national mental health crisis head-on.

PATH Caucus co-founder Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), for his part, called the news the next first step and pledged to continue fighting to advance these promising therapies that could save the lives of countless Veterans.

If psychedelic-assisted therapy can help treat a servicemember or Veterans PTSD, or prevent them from taking their own life, Bergman said in a statement, then we owe it to them to take an active role in researching these potentially life-saving therapies.

Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), a retired Navy SEAL who used psychedelics to help treat a traumatic brain injury, applauded the VA announcement.

This is great news for our veterans that lays the foundation for us to save the lives of those that have so generously served our country, he said in an emailed release. This is tremendous progress for the VA, made possible by working closely with Secretary McDonough and the House Committee on Veterans Affairs commitment to finding better solutions for our veterans. We must continue to push forward on these groundbreaking efforts to give those facing these issues another tool in the proverbial toolbox.

Luttrell has publicly shared how treatment with ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT changed my life and was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. Last year he championed the inclusion of psychedelics research provisions in a large-scale federal defense bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) last month.

The VA release said that expanding psychedelics research for veterans is also in line with calls from Veterans Service Organizations such as theAmerican LegionandDisabled American Veterans, as well asmental health provider groups.

Steps toward broader access are also supported by a large majorities of veterans family members, the general public and military members and veterans themselves, according to an Ohio State University survey of 1,168 people.

Among veterans and active military respondents, nearly two thirds (64 percent) supported allowing VA doctors to legally recommend psychedelics to veterans if they believe it could benefit the patienta proposition with even more support among military family members (78 percent) and the general public (76 percent).

In November of last year, lawmakers in a U.S. House subcommittee met for a first-ever congressional hearing on psychedelics, with the panel focusing on how substances like psilocybin and MDMA can aid therapy for military veterans facing mental health challenges.

And in California, a Republican lawmaker filed legislation earlier this month to create a state workgroup that would be tasked with exploring a regulatory framework to provide therapeutic access to psychedelics like psilocybin and ibogaine and eventually allowhealth professionals to administer certain psychedelics to military combat veterans.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this month also confirmed that the spores of psychedelic mushrooms are federally legal prior to germination because they do not contain the controlled substances psilocybin or psylocin.

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VA Is Funding New Research On Psychedelics' Benefits For Veterans With PTSD And Depression - Marijuana Moment

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is requesting applications for proposals from its network of VA researchers, in collaboration with academic institutions, to study the use of certain psychedelic compounds in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

VA intends to gather scientific evidence on the potential efficacy and safety of psychedelic compounds such as Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin when used in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat veterans with PTSD and depression. This is the first time since the 1960s that VA is funding research on such compounds.

Our nations veterans deserve the very best care, and VA is constantly supporting innovations to deliver that, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said.This is an important step to explore the efficacy of a potential new set of promising treatments that could improve the health and quality of life for veterans.

As with all other VA studies, research conducted on psychedelic compounds will be completed under stringent safety protocols. While these compounds are controlled substances, tightly restricted under federal law, research on these compounds may be conducted with appropriate regulatory approvals, including those from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Drug Enforcement Administration. The FDA granted breakthrough therapy status for MDMA for treating PTSD and psilocybin for treating depression in (2018 and 2019, respectively) based on promising preliminary research evidence.

In September, more than 75 VA and other federal clinicians, scientists and policy makers gathered in Denver to assess the state of existing scientific evidence regarding psychedelic-assisted therapies. This meetings working groups provided advice to VA leadership, including the recommendation for VA to begin funding its own studies into these compounds.This guidance was based onpreviously published studiesthat have found promising results but included few or no Veterans. For example,researchers at Johns Hopkins have shownthat psilocybin therapy, given with supportive therapy, can ease symptoms of depression for up to 12 months. Additionally, 86% of participants in arecent peer-reviewed studyachieved a clinically meaningful benefit from using MDMA to treat PTSD.

VA researchers have already conducted a limited number of small studies on psychedelics in VA facilities using non-VA funding. This sets the stage for the next step of directly assessing effectiveness and safety of using MDMA and psilocybin-augmented psychotherapy for veterans.

Expanding research on psychedelics to address veteran mental health is also in line with calls from The American Legionand other veterans service organizations. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 also authorized the study of psychedelics within military populations by the Department of Defense. With this new announcement, VA will join the National Institutes of Health in supporting research that will yield insights for treating PTSD and depression.

Link:

VA ramps up study of psychedelic to treat PTSD - The American Legion

The heart is a fickle thing, but it may be best to keep it that way. In a recent preprint article, still awaiting peer review, Imperial College London researchers Fernando Rosas and Pedro Mediano reveal how the heart behaves under psychedelics, dynamically interacting with the brain in unique ways that may promote well-being. Drawing on multiple data sets for psilocybin, ketamine, DMT, and LSD, the researchers analyzed correlations between brain activity, subjective effects, and three measures of cardiac activity in humans: heart rate, heart-rate variability, and heart-rate entropy. Their findings suggest that by knowing the heart, we can better know the mind.

When it comes to modeling psychedelic brain effects, neuroscientists tend to view heart rate and other peripheral physiological changes as mere byproducts of the experience, irrelevant to understanding how altered states of consciousness are constructed, let alone how psychedelics might improve mental health. After all, its common knowledge that many psychoactive drugs, including psychedelics, can increase heart rate (the number of beats per minute), so why should the line of inquiry go any further?

For good reason, as it turns out. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, we now know that the heart can influence cognition, including emotion, time perception, social interaction, and sense of self. In fact, selfhood itself may be grounded in the integration of internal signals, especially heartbeats, into the brains representation of the body. And when it comes to influencing selfhood, not all beats are created equal.

In order to support the body in balancing fight or flight with rest and digest, one important thing the heart does under normal conditions is behave erratically. Although it may feel like your heart beats rather consistently, it actually varies by a fraction each time, even when youre at rest. This variation in time between beats is called heart rate variability (HRV), and its important for adapting to change. The pattern of HRV differs for each person, like a fingerprint, and can shift depending on the time of day, season, and other factors. Overall higher HRV has been firmly linked to greater health, as it seems to reflect the ability of an organism to flexibly adapt to complex environmental circumstances. Meanwhile, lower variability has been linked to illness. Good sleep, physical exercise, and positive social interaction have been shown to increase HRV, while depression, schizophrenia, and other conditions have been associated with reduced HRV. The heart, it seems, is fundamental to conscious experience.

Still, most theories of how psychedelics work have focused on the brain, broadly neglecting the rest of the body. Another view, Rosas and Mediano write, is that autonomic changes (i.e. changes in involuntary bodily functions) are part of the experience itself, and therefore bearers of signal rather than noise.

It was on this basis that Rosas and his team which includes University College London neuroscientist and cardiac researcher Sarah Garfinkel sought to investigate the link between brain and heart in psychedelic experience. They wanted to know: Do psychedelics increase HRV as well as heart rate, or do something else to the heart entirely? Even more intriguingly, would these cardiac markers predict subjective experience? They already had a few clues to work with. Since previous research has shown that psychedelics increase brain entropy, which is a measure of the variability of conscious states (more diverse and less typical patterns of activity), they wondered whether psychedelics might also diversify patterns of heart activity. This variability of HRV variability of variability, if you will is called heart-rate entropy (HRE).

Entropy measures not the prevalence of specific patterns, but the diversity of patterns in heart rate fluctuations, Rosas told Big Think. I like thinking that entropy doesnt look for patterns but looks for patterns of patterns.

To measure HRV, you need to identify the shape of the pattern. To measure HRE, you dont necessarily need to know what the HRV pattern looks like exactly just how diverse it is.

Two subjects may display entirely different shapes in their patterns of fluctuation, but for the entropy this is not a problem, as it just assesses how broad the repertoire of patterns of each subject are.

If psychedelics increased heart-rate entropy, the team wondered, would these changes be correlated with increases in brain entropy, and could that tell them something about the therapeutic effects of psychedelics?

First, the research team showed that, compared to placebo, all psychedelic compounds ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, and DMT did, in fact, increase HR, HRV, and HRE.

Next, to take a closer look at the dynamic relationship between heart activity, brain activity, and subjective experience, they pulled aside the DMT data set for analysis. They chose this data set for two reasons. Because a DMT trip takes less than 20 minutes, the data set gave Rosas and his team a good glimpse of what high variability over a relatively short time could look like. This set also provided them with rich psychological ratings associated with various subjective dimensions of the experience, gathered from questionnaires. (As a side note, the psilocybin and ketamine data sets were excluded from the following analyses as they couldnt provide the same insight into the dynamics of a trip, covering only a small portion of what is a much longer trip.)

The researchers found that heart-rate entropy predicted changes in brain entropy much better than HR and HRV, with substantial correlation 0 to 5 minutes (peak experience) and 9 to 12 minutes after injection. Although heart-rate entropy waxes and wanes similarly to the mean heart rate, it has very distinctive predictive properties, Rosas says. Even if their dynamics may look similar, they seem to be capturing rather different processes.

In fact, each autonomic marker had very distinctive predictive power over dimensions of the DMT experience as it unfolded, explaining up to 70% of the variation between subjects. For example, the intensity of experience was dominated by HR, challenging experience by HR entropy, and complex imagery alternating between HRV, HR, and entropy at different times.

That said, Rosas cautions against over-interpreting the findings.

This is an explorative analysis on a small sample size, which we think should be taken as a proof of principle that this works, he says. Larger studies should be carried out to find out what autonomic feature is most associated with what psychological dimension.

Next, they examined the LSD data set, which was larger (20 subjects under drug and placebo in four different environmental conditions), to see whether heart-rate entropy and brain entropy were simply co-occurring phenomena, or whether they each contributed in their own way to the subjective experience. As the LSD dataset used MEG and structural MRI rather than the low-density EEG of the DMT data set, they were also able to extract spatial information to tell them which parts of the brain showed this entropic link (as it turns out, the precuneus, mid cingulate, and sensorimotor areas, specifically).

What they found is that different features of the LSD experience simple and complex imagery, positive mood, intensity of the experience, ego dissolution, and emotional arousal correlated in distinct ways with different biomarkers (heart and brain). For example, brain entropy was the strongest predictor of simple and complex imagery, while HR entropy was the strongest predictor of positive mood. But when taken together, positive correlations between heart and brain biomarkers were even more predictive of various states, suggesting that knowing the state of the autonomic system substantially increases predictive power over subjective scores.

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The predictive power of autonomic markers is not redundant with the predictive power of brain entropy, Rosas says, but seems to be synergistic. In other words, heart activity doesnt just reflect brain activity its an integral part of the picture, contributing its own pieces to the puzzle of the psychedelic state. Better predictions of the psychological effects of LSD can be attained by considering models which include both brain and heart signatures, and their interactions.

So, what could all this mean for mental health? For starters, you might say hearts were behaving rather strangely in these data sets, and thats a good thing.

The patterns of heart activity we were seeing with psychedelics was quite special, Dr. Garfinkel told Big Think. To get such striking rises in both heart rate and heart rate variability together is an unusual profile, typically only seen under conditions of intense joy and euphoria.

In most cases, if heart rate increases, HRV decreases. This happens every time you exercise, for example. Whats more, in schizophrenia and some cases of depression, brain entropy is increased while HRV is reduced. To see simultaneous increases in brain entropy, heart rate, and heart entropy was fairly remarkable.

As we are increasingly recognizing that cardiac signatures and their interactions with the brain are potentially pivotal for guiding emotional states, Garfinkel said, this relatively unique signature may be integral in helping us understand the body-brain dynamics underscoring the therapeutic and beneficial effects of psychedelics.

The next obvious step would be to disentangle the relationship between brain effects and HRV for example, by determining whether the heart itself could be driving, not just responding to, psychedelic states. Motivated by this possibility, Rosas said, I dont like the simplistic view that the heart is nothing more than a blood pump, but Id like to be able to support counter-arguments on empirical evidence.

In future studies, Rosas believes causality could first be investigated without psychedelics by employing animal models to perform pharmacological or other interventions, altering one system or the other to see what happens with the coupling. Whats most exciting to him, for now, is that focusing on the heart could change the way psychedelic scientists work: Collecting large samples of ECG data related to psychedelics is far easier, less invasive, and more cost-effective than brain imaging.

While the team acknowledges that the uniqueness of this entropic heart effect could be partly due to its difficulty to elicit in a laboratory setting (thus making it relatively absent from the research literature), they also offer another more heartening possibility: This peculiar autonomic signature may be associated with the very special state of mind often associated with psychedelic experiences, related to expansion, connection, and meaning.

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Scientists predict DMT trip from cardiac activity - Big Think

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Psychedelics for acquired brain injury: a review of molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential | Molecular ... - Nature.com

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. Today, following the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issuing a request for applications (RFA) for proposals from its network of VA researchers to study the use of certain psychedelic compounds in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression,Representatives Lou Correa (CA-46)andJack Bergman (MI-01), co-chairs of thePsychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, released the below statement:

To say this moment is monumental would be an understatement. Weve been fighting for years to push the VA to research the impact of breakthrough therapies, like psychedelics, on the invisible wounds of our countrys most valiant warriorswith the House passing our amendment to do just that last year,Correa said.These therapies promise to be one of the largest breakthroughs in mental health treatment in nearly half a century, and, with some reported signs of up to 80% success in treatment, shows a possibility to cure our veterans of their invisible woundsand be the first step toward tackling our national mental health crisis head-on. I could not be more proud to have been in this fight alongside General Bergman to get to this point, and we wont stop until these potentially life-saving therapies are accessible to all who would benefit from them.

Last year, the House of Representatives passed theCorrea-Bergman Amendment, which wasincluded in federal funding legislation, to push the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out large-scale studies into drugs like psilocybin and MDMAwhich have been designated as breakthrough therapies by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

If psychedelic-assisted therapy can help treat a servicemember or Veterans PTSD, or prevent them from taking their own life, then we owe it to them to take an active role in researching these potentially life-saving therapies,Bergman said.Im grateful for Secretary McDonoughs commitment to making VA a leader in this promising new field of research, and for my friend Lou Correas work and leadership to help move this forward. This is the next first stepand I will continue fighting to advance these promising therapies that could save the lives of countless Veterans.

The Correa-Bergman Amendmentamended the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. It encouraged the VA to explore utilizing federal dollars to fund research into the impact of breakthrough therapies, including psychedelics, on veterans who return home from combat with invisible wounds. It passed by unanimous consent, and was included in the final text of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which passed out of the House last year. You can find the full text of the amendmentHERE.

CorreaandBergmanare Co-Chairs of Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, where theypromoterigorous and urgent clinical research into the efficacy of psychedelics in treating brain health conditions, in accordance with the law.

Congressman Lou Correa is a longtime Orange County resident, with deep local roots. To this day, he lives only three miles from his childhood neighborhood in Anaheim. He is the son of working-class parents whose hard work gave him a chance at success, and has spent his career fighting to protect the American Dream, and ensure anyone can reach the middle class, just as he did. In 2016, Lou was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to continue his work by representing the community he has spent the past 20 years serving, fighting to give everyone access to the same opportunity he had. Congressman Correa is committed to working across party lines to strengthen the middle class and give everyone a shot at the American Dream by investing in education, healthcare, and our fading infrastructure, and has introduced legislation to protect the legal rights of immigrants, care for veterans, and fight against the wasteful spending of taxpayer money.

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U.S. Rep. Correa supports using psychedelics to treat veterans with PTSD - New Santa Ana

A top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has affirmed that spores that produce so-called magic mushrooms are not, on their own, federally prohibited.

DEAs Drug & Chemical Evaluation Section Chief Terrence Boos was asked about the legal status of the spores in a letter from attorney Michael McGuire in November, and he sent a response on Tuesday that clarified the agencys position.

If the mushroom spores (or any other material) do not contain psilocybin or psilocin (or any other controlled substance or listed chemical), the material is considered not controlled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Boos wrote.

However, if at any time the material contains a controlled substance such as psilocybin or psilocin (for example, upon germination), the material would be considered a controlled substance under the CSA, he said, as Kight On Cannabis first reported.

This isnt especially revelatory, as its long been understood that the CSA doesnt explicitly ban spores that can be used to produce so-called magic mushrooms. Rather, it lists the key psychoactive ingredients in psychedelic mushrooms, psilocybin and psilocyn, as Schedule I controlled substances.

Because the spores themselves dont contain those specific compounds, they are uncontrolled under the CSA.

However, it should be noted that while the spores are technically considered federally legalas long as someone doesnt use them to produce mushrooms that contain psilocybin or psilocinstates such as California, Georgia and Idaho do prohibit the spores themselves.

The DEA letter still marks an important clarification, though. As attorney Rod Kight pointed out, police have still arrested people for selling or utilizing spore kits. But its possible that could be connected to a different question of whether the kits are considered drug paraphernalia, which may depend on how spore kits are marketed or used, he wrote.

In short, this newest DEA letter is a positive clarification of a long-debated issue. However, it does not necessarily open the doors to widespread use and sale of spore kits, Kight said. At a minimum, buyers and sellers should understand the legal issues with a lawyer, and act accordingly.

The spore versus mushroom question mirrors another DEA paradox that was addressed in separate, earlier letters from Boos: while marijuana is federally prohibited, the seeds that produce that plant are not (as long as they do not contain more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight).

If the seeds fall under that threshold, they are considered federally legal hemp, under the definition set out in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized the non-intoxicating crop. Boos made that distinction in a letter to attorney Shane Pennington in January 2022.

Meanwhile, the DEA official issued another relevant administrative interpretation of cannabis statute last year when he asserted that the agency considers the intoxicating cannabinoid delta-8 THC an illicit Schedule I drug if its synthesized from federally legal CBD.

Delta-8 THC products have proliferated on the market since hemps legalization, essentially existing in an unregulated legal grey area. If the cannabinoid is naturally extracted from hemp, its federally legal. But its generally considered common practice to synthesize it from CBD because its a more cost-effective process. Some states have taken steps to restrict delta-8 THC, however.

At DEAs 2023 Supply Chain Conference in May, Boos similarly explained that synthetic cannabinoids are banned, and he said that DEA is in the process of developing a final rule to formally clarify that policy, at the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Boos also told a lawyer last year that the minor cannabinoids delta-8 THC-0 and delta-9 THC-O are prohibitedbecause they can only be synthetically produced.

Some experts have disputed DEAs interpretation of the statute on intoxicating hemp-based cannabinoids, however. And a federal appeals court ruled in 2022 that the way that existing rules are written makes delta-8 THC exempt from control, as the law is silent on the minor cannabinoid while clearly legalizing hemp extracts and derivatives.

The letter of psychedelic mushroom spores comes after a federal appellate panel denied a motion by lawyers for a Washington State doctor trying to reschedule psilocybinunder the CSA. In an order last month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the doctors request for a rehearing of an earlier court decision that returned the matter to DEA.

DEA recently announced that it is taking another shot atbanning two psychedelics after abandoning its original scheduling proposal in 2022, teeing up another fight with researchers and advocates who say the compounds hold therapeutic potential.

The agency separatelybacked down from a proposal to ban five different tryptamine psychedelics in 2022amid sizable pushback from the research and advocacy communities.

DEA is also warning Georgia pharmacies that dispensing THC is unlawfulbecause it remains a Schedule I drug after the state became the first in the U.S. to allow pharmacies to sell medical marijuana, with nearly 120 facilities applying to sell cannabis oil.

Its additionallycalling for the production of even more THC, psilocybin and DMT for research purposes than it initially proposed for 2024raising its quotas for those drugs whilemaintaining already high production goals for marijuana and other psychedelics.

Meanwhile, DEA is actively conducting a review into marijuana scheduling after receiving a recommendation from HHS to move it from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA. The agency said in a letter to Congress last month that it reserves the final authority to make any scheduling decision on cannabis, regardless of what the HHS recommends.

Read the full DEA letter on psilocybin mushroom spores below:

New Kentucky Bill Would Legalize Marijuana Use, Possession And Home CultivationBut Not Sales

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DEA Confirms That Psychedelic Mushroom Spores Are Federally Legal Prior To Germination - Marijuana Moment