Griffen is an attorney in Harris Sliwoski’s Los Angeles office, where he focuses his practice on corporate, transactional, intellectual property, data security, regulatory, and litigation matters across a wide variety of domestic and international industries.
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
Amanita muscaria (also known as fly agaric) is a type of mushroom with hallucinogenic properties. It is also not listed on any schedule of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). So of course, people want to make and sell it. But what is it? And is it legal? Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) Amanita muscaria is a
Click HERE to register for our upcoming FREE Q&A webinar on ketamine regulations and the future of therapeutic psychedelic medicines! In the next few years, the FDA will likely approve drug formulations containing psilocybin and MDMA. While there are still many unknowns concerning how psilocybin and MDMA-based drug therapies will be regulated, we believe that
