Category Archives: Psychedelics

Ongoing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) testing of a 'microdose' psychedelic candy linked to dozens of illnesses across 20 states has identified several of the product's compounds as possible causes of the symptoms.

While none of the listed chemicals conclusively solve the medical mystery, the results reflect the poor state of regulation of a market responding to a rapidly growing interest in psychedelics for health and recreation.

Earlier this month, the FDA in collaboration with America's Poison Centers announced its investigation of eight reported illnesses linked with the consumption of Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars.

As of this week, that number stands at 39, with symptoms ranging from abnormal heart rates, hyper/hypotension, nausea, and vomiting to seizures, confusion, and even loss of consciousness. In 23 of the cases, health concerns were serious enough to warrant hospitalization.

Numerous state authorities have issued statements urging retailers to refrain from selling or distributing Diamond Shruumz products, and residents who have any in their possession to hold them until the FDA provides instructions on their return or responsible disposal.

"As people in multiple states have become ill with a variety of severe symptoms after eating these products, we are advising Granite Staters to avoid consuming them," says New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services director, Iain Watt.

"We will continue to monitor information from our federal partners about this ongoing investigation."

In spite of companies like Diamond Shruumz marketing their edible products as 'microdosing' candies, none of the claimed active psychedelic agents or indeed other ingredients are provided to the consumer.

It's taken an FDA analysis of two individual samples to reveal Diamond Shruumz 'Birthday Cake' chocolate bar contains the compound 4-acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (4-acetoxy-DMT, also known as O-acetylpsilocin or psilacetin), while their dark chocolate bar contains psilacetin along with three compounds consistent with the botanical kava, desmethoxyyangonin, dihydrokavain, and kavain.

Whether all similar products contain the same ingredients in the same concentrations is impossible to say without further testing.

Psilacetin is a semi-synthetic compound that, like the 'magic mushroom' chemical psilocybin, is broken down in the body to produce the psychoactive chemical psilocin. Because of this shared pathway, psilacetin is a similarly effective (if potentially stronger) alternative with fewer side effects.

Without sufficient clinical research, little is known about the health effects of the substance, leaving open the question of whether this, or other ingredients in the products, may be responsible for the illnesses.

Discovering chemicals consistent with additives from kava (Piper methysticum) has prompted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a statement warning of the potential clinical effects of ingesting the plant.

"Ingestion of kava can cause numbness of the mouth and skin, loss of coordination, dizziness, and sedation," the CDC report says.

"Ingestion of kava with other substances known to cause sedation, such as benzodiazepines or alcohol, can worsen sedation. Kava can also cause gastrointestinal effects such as nausea and vomiting."

Clinical interest in psychoactive pharmaceuticals for therapeutic use has boomed in recent years, coinciding with a renewed surge in taking drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms for recreational purposes.

It's estimated that 8 million American adults took psilocybin last year, with a survey finding more than one in ten have taken the drug some time in their life.

Around the world, unregulated production of psychoactive consumables is an emerging issue. Since April this year, five people in the Australian state of New South Wales have been treated after ingesting 'mushroom' gummies.

"We need to ensure that the public understands the difference between these products and registered medicines prescribed by a health professional," advises University of Sydney psychologist Jack Wilson, a researcher at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use.

"Not only in terms of their efficacy, but their risk of harms."

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FDA: Severe Illness From Psychedelic Candy Now Seen in 20 States - ScienceAlert

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Americans' Interest in Microdosing Psychedelics Is Growing | Health | shelbynews.com - Shelbynews

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Bryan Anker: More research needed on medical psychedelics (Opinion) - Charleston Gazette-Mail

Dr Nick Everett in the lab at the Brain and Mind Centre.

The University of Sydneys Brain and Mind Centre has partnered with Psylo, a global biotechnology startup and pioneer in non-hallucinogenic psychedelic drugs, to develop innovative treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders using advanced artificial intelligence technologies.

This initiative highlights the Universitys commitment to bridging academic research with industry innovation, providing real-world solutions to pressing health issues.

Dr Nick Everett, a Research Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leader at the University of Sydneys School of Psychology and an expert in behavioural neuroscience, has been awarded a partnership grant by the Universitys Brain and Mind Centre to lead this initiative.

Dr Everett has developed machine-learning-guided behavioural analysis technology, which utilises high frame-rate cameras and sophisticated data-parsing techniques to predict the behavioural profiles and potential therapeutic properties of new drugs. Psylo will use this powerful platform, which is exclusively available to them, to enhance the capacity and efficiency of Psylos drug development.

This partnership with Psylo represents a pivotal moment in our ongoing efforts to translate academic research into transformative treatments, Dr Everett said.

By combining our machine-learning models with Psylo's cutting-edge platform, we aim to develop more effective and safer treatments for mental health conditions, at a pace faster than previously possible.

Psylo is at the forefront of developing novel medicines that utilise the bodys serotonin receptors to treat central nervous system disorders. Their work focuses on non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists that activate the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor, like traditional psychedelics, but without causing psychoactive effects. Their compounds have shown promise in preclinical studies for their antidepressant effects and ability to promote neuroplasticity.

Psylo aims to address the limitations of conventional treatments, like SSRI antidepressants, and the barriers faced by traditional psychedelic therapies.

Chief Scientific Officer at Psylo and University of Sydney alumnus Dr Samuel Banister said: Our proprietary computational platform has successfully optimised next-generation drug candidates that retain the therapeutic benefits of natural psychedelics in preclinical models.

The expertise provided by Dr Everett and the University will be invaluable in accelerating the translation of these compounds into viable treatments for patients."

This collaboration comes at a crucial time, as Australia has recently become the first country to allow psilocybin and MDMA to be prescribed for the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), respectively.

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Partnership with biotech start-up Psylo will help deliver psychedelic treatments for mental health - University of Sydney

Grand Central Publishing

In one common account of modern psychedelic culture's origins, LSD was initially monopolized by the national security state, which saw such drugs as tools for "control of human behavior." The results included MKULTRA, an infamous CIA program that experimented on people without their consent. But in the 1960s, the story goes, the establishment lost control of these tools. Suddenly, utopian individualists like Timothy Leary were urging people to use drugs to seize control of theirownconsciousnessand the deep state was less interested in deploying LSD than in cracking down on its unauthorized use.

Benjamin Breen'sTripping on Utopiacomplicates this tale. The book focuses on the anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, who in the 1930s developed their own utopian visions of fluid identities and resistance to psychological manipulation; while psychedelia was not at the center of their work, it was in their constellation of sources. They also developed strong ties to the national security state during World War II, and in the early Cold War their social circles included people directly tied to MKULTRA. Bateson backed away in horror, but Mead maintained her CIA connections for years.

Some of the book's conclusions have been disputed, with Bateson's daughter Nora arguing that Breen misconstrued archival documents and otherwise botched his facts. But no matter how that debate plays out,Tripping on Utopiamakes it clear that these two conceptions of psychedelic drugsas tools of liberation and as tools of controlwere uncomfortably entwined well before the 1960s. The '60s crowd does not always come off well here either, but I'll say one thing for Leary: For all his overstatements and opportunistic personal behavior, which Breen recounts unsparingly, he believed it was just as wrong to coercively "alter the consciousness of thy fellow man" as it was to "prevent thy fellow man from altering his own consciousness."

The post Review: Tripping on Utopia Complicates the History of Psychedelics appeared first on Reason.com.

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Review: Tripping on Utopia Complicates the History of Psychedelics - AOL

African plant Tabernanthe iboga contains ibogaine Photo by Scamperdale (CC license)

An African psychedelic plant significantly alleviated the symptoms of war veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), according to another new study.

Ibogaine, a naturally occurring compound found in the roots of the African shrub iboga, was found to successfully improve functioning, PTSD, depression and anxiety in military veterans.

The plant-based psychoactive drug, which has been used in Africa for a thousand years during spiritual and healing rituals, was also found to contain no adverse side effectswith some veterans saying the experimental treatment saved their lives.

Hundreds of thousands of troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq have sustained TBIs in recent decades, and these injuries are suspected of playing a role in the high rates of depression and suicide seen among military veterans. With mainstream treatment options not fully effective for all veterans, researchers have sought therapeutic alternatives.

Ibogaine has gained notoriety in scientific communities for its potential to treat opioid and cocaine addiction, because it increases signaling of several important molecules within the brain, some of which have been linked to drug addiction and depression.

Traumatic brain injury is defined as a disruption in the normal functioning of the brain resulting from external forcessuch as explosions, vehicle collisions or other bodily impacts. Such trauma can lead to changes in the structure of the brain, which, in turn, contributes to neuro-psychiatric symptoms.

Stanford Medicine researchers discovered that ibogaine, when combined with magnesium to protect the heart, safely and effectively reduces symptoms like PTSD, anxiety, and depressionand improves functioningin veterans with TBI.

Their new study, published on Jan. 5 in Nature Medicine, includes detailed data on 30 veterans of U.S. special forces.

No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury, said Nolan Williams, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this compound further.

Since 1970 ibogaine has been designated as a Schedule I drug, preventing its use within the U.S., but clinics in both Canada and Mexico offer legal ibogaine treatments.

There were a handful of veterans who had gone to this clinic in Mexico and were reporting anecdotally that they had great improvements in all kinds of areas of their lives after taking ibogaine, Williams told Stanford Medicine News. Our goal was to characterize those improvements with structured clinical and neurobiological assessments.

MORE BENEFITS: People Whove Tried Psychedelics Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease and Diabetes

Dr. Williams and his Stanford team partnered with VETS, Inc., a foundation that has facilitated psychedelic-assisted therapies for hundreds of veterans. 30 special operations veterans with a history of TBI and repeated blast exposuresalmost all of whom were experiencing clinically severe psychiatric symptoms and functional disabilitieswere recruited after theyd independently scheduled themselves for an ibogaine treatment at a Mexico clinic.

Before the treatment, the researchers gauged the participants levels of PTSD, anxiety, depression and functioning based on a combination of self-reported questionnaires and clinician-administered assessments. Participants then traveled to a clinic in Mexico run by Ambio Life Sciences, where under medical monitoring they received oral ibogaine along with magnesium to help prevent heart complications that have been associated with ibogaine. The veterans then returned to Stanford Medicine for post-treatment assessments.

19 of the participants had been suicidal, and seven had attempted suicide.

These men were incredibly intelligent, high-performing individuals who experienced life-altering functional disability from TBI during their time in combat, Williams said. They were all willing to try most anything that they thought might help them get their lives back.

On average, treatment with ibogaine immediately led to significant improvements in functioning, PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Moreover, those effects were still lasting one month after treatment, when the study ended.

Before treatment, the veterans had an average disability rating of 30.2 on the disability assessment scale, equivalent to mild to moderate disability. One month after treatment, that rating improved to 5.1, indicating no disability.

CHECK OUT: One of the First Publicly-Traded Psychedelic Wellness Companies is Mapping the Mental Health Revolution

Similarly, one month later, they experienced average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms. Formal cognitive testing also revealed improvements in participants concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity.

I wasnt willing to admit I was dealing with any TBI challenges. I just thought Id had my bell rung a few timesuntil the day I forgot my wifes name, said Craig, a 52-year-old study participant from Colorado who served 27 years in the U.S. Navy.

Since [ibogaine treatment], my cognitive function has been fully restored. This has resulted in advancement at work and vastly improved my ability to talk to my children and wife.

Before the treatment, I was living life in a blizzard with zero visibility and a cold, hopeless, listless feeling, said Sean, a 51-year-old veteran from Arizona with six combat deployments who participated in the study and says ibogaine saved his life. After ibogaine, the storm lifted.

MUSHROOM MAGIC: Another Study Shows Psychedelic Psilocybin Mushrooms Offering Long-Term Relief From Depressive Symptoms

Importantly, there were no serious side effects of ibogaine and no instances of the heart problems that have occasionally been linked to ibogaine. During treatment, veterans reported only typical symptoms such as headaches and nausea.

The team is planning further studies, along with analysis of brain scans that could help reveal how ibogaine led to improvements in cognition. They also think ibogaines drastic effects on TBI suggest that it holds broader therapeutic potential for other neuro-psychiatric conditions.

I think this may emerge as a broader neuro-rehab drug, said Williams. I think it targets a whole host of different brain areas and can help us better understand how to treat other forms of PTSD, anxiety and depression that arent necessarily linked to TBI.

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Another Study Shows African Psychedelic Plant Ibogaine Treats Traumatic Brain Injury in Vets With 'Dramatic' Results - Good News Network

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.

DEA Tells Congress It Has Final Authority On Marijuana, Regardless Of Health Agencys Schedule III Recommendation

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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.

Congressman Tells DEA To Reschedule Marijuana As Swiftly As Possible

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Workman.

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Here is the original post:

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