The end of 2024 marks two years in the books for the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) program. It has been a long road: in my year-end 2023 post, I explained that the program was incubated on a protracted, two-year runway prior to launch. This mean we are four years along, with two years of live
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’
Oregon’s rule limiting the non-resident ownership of licensed psilocybin businesses sunsets on December 31, 2024. That’s a little over six months away. Six months is not that long, especially in the context of getting to know an industry or a business, and putting a thoughtful deal together– one that will generate reasonable returns for an
Despite decades of stigma and legal barriers, recent years have brought a profound shift in attitudes towards psychedelics. Driven by scientific inquiry and a growing recognition of their potential therapeutic benefits, the benefits of psychedelics are being explored. In this blog post, we explore the impact of an unexpected catalyst driving progress in psychedelics research–
Psilocybin’s therapeutic renaissance Once relegated to the realm of recreational drug use, psilocybin is now at the forefront of a discussion on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. Arizona is the latest state to take up the discourse: its proposed Senate Bill 1570 (SB 1570) would establish licensed psychedelic-assisted therapy centers, and advance scientific research
Should private equity be involved in health care? If so, in what types of settings? And to what extent? These are baseline considerations around a broad concept referred to as “corporate practice of medicine” (“CPOM”) that state legislatures, agencies, medical licensing boards, courts and attorneys general and grappled with for over a century. The Oregon
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
It’s hard to believe that we are wrapping up the first year of the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) program. Final rules were released at this time last year, following a protracted, two-year development period. The application window for licenses opened timely on January 2, 2023, and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) continues to administer this
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
Perhaps inevitably, lawmakers introduced a very skinny bill last week to protect states that legalize psilocybin from federal intervention. Specifically, it requires that: [n]o Federal funds may be used to prevent any State or unit of local government from implementing such State’s or unit of local government’s own laws that authorize the use, distribution, sale,
