Issues Ahead as Psychedelic Medicine Faces Pivotal Moment
This article originally published on September 28, 2023, by Law360, and is reproduced here with permission.
Psychedelics are attracting increasing attention across traditional and social media, the pharmaceutical industry and the investment community.
Psychedelics, sometimes called hallucinogens, generally refer to a broader class of therapeutic drugs that includes psilocybin and LSD, which primarily interact with serotonin receptors; dissociative drugs, e.g., ketamine, which block certain receptors resulting in altered perception; and other drugs inducing mind-altering-like effects, e.g., MDMA, an empathogen.
Key players spanning from major pharmaceutical companies and privately held drug developers to venture capitalists, policymakers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are taking note of the medicinal benefit behind these classes of drugs and their potential to cure, treat or alleviate symptoms for a vast array of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
However, decades of concerns about the recreational use and high risk for misuse of psychedelics could hinder mainstream acceptance of their therapeutic use and affect the landscape for their development and potential adoption by the pharmaceutical and medical community.
