Psychedelic Therapy Is Here. Just Don’t Call It Therapy

June 15, 2023

(Wired) – All eyes are on Oregon as it becomes the first US state to roll out a program through which people can legally trip. It’s been held up as a real-world experiment in psychedelic medicine—a field that has sparked hope as a treatment for a range of mental conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

One small hiccup: Oregon hasn’t legalized psychedelic medicine. According to the bill that permits use of psilocybin, the law only allows what’s being called “supported adult use.” Basically, people can legally trip under the watchful eye of a facilitator. But psychedelic-assisted therapy it is not. “It’s literally against the regulations to treat people in any way,” says Mason Marks, a legal scholar at Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center and former chair of the Licensing Subcommittee of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board. (Read More)