A recently published letter (“Letter”) indicates that the Biden administration is preparing for the approval of psychedelic drugs and MDMA to treat mental illness and PTSD. This type of federal agency correspondence would have been unimaginable five or six years ago. Things are changing fast! There are well-known potential health benefits of MDMA and psychedelics
We often receive questions from ketamine clinics regarding who must obtain a DEA registration to dispense controlled substances. There are two candidates to consider – the healthcare providers who work at the clinic and the clinic itself. Often, there is a misconception about whether a clinic needs to hold a DEA registration. We wrote about
Federal law requires prior in-person evaluations before a physician can provide telehealth services. The federal government declared a COVID-19 public health emergency, essentially suspending this rule. Following this suspension, ketamine telehealth providers and other virtual telehealth providers popped up all over the country. In all likelihood, the emergency declaration will end soon, leaving the industry
Ketamine telehealth just got a big lifeline. On April 12, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) renewed its determination that a public health emergency (PHE) exists due to COVID-19. Obviously, this has been a hugely controversial move even if the renewal is only good for 90 days. This 90 day extension is
RICO (or the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) has been a thorn in the foot for cannabis companies since, well, the dawn of cannabis companies. RICO will be just as annoying for psychedelics companies. Today I will explain what RICO is and why RICO and psychedelics will have a rocky relationship. What is
We’ve discussed at length the DEA’s process for seeking religious exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). You can read about that in my posts linked at the bottom of this one. Critics of the religious exemption petition process claim that the DEA rarely, if ever, responds to petitions. They also complain that they are
The gap in the treatment of controlled substances between the state and federal levels continues to widen. That has long been true with cannabis, but the trend has accelerated with psilocybin and other psychedelics recently. This growing disparity has implications under U.S. immigration law for employers and non-residents who wish to become involved in the
As the Oregon Health Authority moves forward with creating a program for the legal consumption of psilocybin following the enactment of Measure 109, other efforts to normalize the medical use of psilocybin continue. This week the Ninth Circuit ruled on a case concerning whether a physician may administer psilocybin without incurring liability under the Controlled
The DEA violates religious freedom through its opaque and arguably illegal process for applicants seeking religious exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). I’ve made this point before. But today, I want to look at one of the more nefarious ways in which the DEA’s exemption process violates religious freedoms. To do that, I first
I get the same questions any time I tell someone that my law firm has a psychedelics practice group. One of the top 5 is: “is microdosing psilocybin legal?” The short answer is no. But like any area of the law, it’s complex. Today, I’ll dissect the legality of microdosing psilocybin. What is psilocybin microdosing?
