The Canna Law Blog is a forum for discussing the practical aspects of cannabis law and its impacts on the cannabis industry. We provide insight into how cannabis businesspeople can use the law to their advantage and in plain language we tell you what works and what does not. We aim to help you strategize how to wield the law as both a shield and a sword.
Over the last few weeks, the federal government has taken a number of actions that signal a dark future for psychedelic therapies. Today we’ll take a quick look at what’s happened, and what may happen in the future. FDA gives thumbs down to MDMA Earlier in August, the FDA opted not to approve Lykos Therapeutics’
California recently failed at least twice in passing sweeping statewide psychedelic decriminalization bills: a) SB-58, which Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed last year, and b) SB-519, which didn’t garner enough support in the assembly the year before. It’s now trying something much more modest – convening a workgroup to study psychedelic assisted therapy. The bill at
A few months ago, I wrote a post entitled “Making Money in the Psychedelics Industry Will be Harder than Cannabis.” The post was focused mostly on hardships that state-legal psilocybin businesses will face in places like Oregon and Colorado, where I think the deck is heavily stacked against them. Today I want to examine a
There is a lot of misinformation floating around online about SB-58, California’s newest psychedelics bill. Unlike the state’s last attempt, SB-58 went through both the state Senate and Assembly and is heading to Governor Newsom’s desk. So it makes sense to discuss what the bill does and doesn’t do. And no, it doesn’t legalize psychedelics.
Ketamine telehealth has been a wild ride these last few years. Every few months I give an update, and every time I do, things seem to change dramatically. For example, in just a few short weeks in February 2023, the situation went from “bad” to “good” (at least sort of) as it became clear that
A handful of entities are in various stages of the FDA approval process for MDMA and psilocybin drugs (see here and here for some of our prior analysis of the issues). FDA approval could happen in the next few years. But there’s a catch: psilocybin and MDMA are both schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Anyone familiar with the cannabis industry knows how difficult it is to make money. Things are going to be even worse for people in the state-legal psychedelics industry – much worse. There are a few key reasons for this. I should note that this post is focused on the state-legal psychedelics industry (i.e., service centers)
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code provides tax exemptions for qualifying charitable organizations, like religious groups. Naturally, religious groups that use psychedelics want 501(c)(3) status. But the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – like many of its counterpart agencies – refuses to play ball. In 2021, a group called the Iowaska Church of Healing took the
A few weeks ago, we held a webinar about ketamine regulation and the future of psychedelic medicine (for a recording, click here). At the time, there were big changes on the horizon for ketamine telehealth. In the last few weeks, there have been a few pretty significant developments that merit some attention. For some background,
There are lots of psychedelics and psychedelic adjacent substances that are not scheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Recently I wrote about amanita muscaria mushrooms and their legal status. Today, I want to talk about a different one: salvia divinorum. Salvia divinorum Salvia divinorum is a psychedelic substance. It was often used for religious
