This Week in Psychedelics: Royalties for music used in psychedelic-assisted therapy, closed-door meeting in Oregon, and psilocybin in Jamaica
Plus: Psychedelics and freedom of religion, and The State of Psychedelics
Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. Here’s the news of the week:
Paying royalties for music used in psychedelic-assisted therapy. A core part of such therapies is “set and setting,” or the mindset and the environment in which a person has a psychedelic experience. Music can play a role in influencing both of these; some musicians have focused specifically on creating such music, and researchers are working on curating playlists for psychedelic therapy.
The centrality of music in psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions might require practitioners and businesses offering such therapy to pay artists royalties, according to a new post in the Harris Bricken Psychedelics Law Blog. While restaurants or gyms might pay for services like Pandora for Business, psychedelic therapy businesses may not be able to get away with that. That’s because the terms of service disallows use of their streaming services in situations where music is the central focus. “It is clear the intention of the license is for ‘background’ music,” the post argues. “Considering music is viewed as a central component of the psilocybin experience, psilocybin service centers will profit from using music for clients.”
But just how central is music to the experience? Opinions vary. According to Bill Richards, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the primary curator of the Hopkins psychedelics playlist, “I think of it as a nonverbal support system, sort of like the net for a trapeze artist. If all is going well, you’re not even aware that the net is there — you don’t even hear the music — but if you start getting anxious, or if you need it, it’s immediately there to provide a structure.”
Jamaica’s growing psilocybin scene. This week, Vancouver-based biotech company HAVN Life Sciences announced a partnership with Canadian company Green Stripe Naturals. In the late 2010s, Green Stripe established itself in Jamaica’s marijuana industry; cannabis was decriminalized there in 2015. The country allows psilocybin retreats and has become a destination for psychedelic tourists. In a press release, HAVN says it will provide Green Stripe with psilocybin products it can distribute to local dispensaries. Green Stripe says it is “in discussions with 14 local dispensaries,” and expects the number of dispensaries to grow to 35 by the end of the year. The companies are also considering expanded distribution to other Caribbean islands.
There has never been a more exciting – or bewildering – time in the world of psychedelics. Don’t miss a beat.
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Can freedom of religion protect psychedelic religions and traditions? The use of entheogens for religious or spiritual purposes isn’t new. But as psychedelics become more popular, faith leaders and psychedelic advocates alike are asserting that freedom of religion laws protect their right to use these substances — and that’s “an untested and highly uncertain area of law,” attorney Matt Zorn writes in Lucid News. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, passed in 1993, prohibits the federal government from “substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion,” unless the government “demonstrates that application of the burden to the person (1) furthers a compelling governmental interest and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”
Zorn points out that what constitutes “religious exercise” or a “compelling governmental interest” is very open-ended, and that while Brazilian ayahuasca churches União do Vegetal and a congregation in the Santo Daime tradition successfully fought the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s efforts to prohibit their ayahuasca use, these cases might not set precedent for other groups hoping the Religious Freedom Restoration Act will protect their rights. He suggests that psychedelics advocates and policy makers push for clearer standards from the DEA about how the agency will determine whether groups might apply for religious exemptions, or demand the formation of a new government body specifically to rule on such matters.
The Latest in Oregon
Two weeks ago, we reported on Oregon’s Psilocybin Advisory Board May 25 meeting, where the board discussed a proposed framework for entheogenic practitioners, designed to protect the rights of people using psilocybin for religious or spiritual purposes. Many advocates see the framework as a way to push back against the psilocybin board’s current rules, which they say have been designed primarily with input from healthcare professionals and corporations. In the meeting, the board rejected the proposal to adopt the framework, and minutes after the meeting, the Oregon Department of Justice released a public memorandum about the proposal, saying it “raises a number of legal questions.”
New information has emerged about that meeting. Mason Marks, a lawyer and former member of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board, writes in Marijuana Moment that the group’s May meeting actually began with a closed-door executive session between the advisory board and the Oregon DOJ. “Journalists were permitted to attend if they vowed not to report what they saw,” he wrote.
Jon Dennis, a lawyer who created the proposal to protect religious and spiritual psilocybin uses, says that making such board discussions private “challenges public trust in the rule-making process.”
The State of Psychedelics
Efforts in Florida to study or state-legalize psychedelics might be stalled. Representative Michael Grieco, a Democrat, introduced psychedelics bills in 2021 and 2022, but both efforts failed; last week, Grieco announced that he’s ending his reelection campaign. The Florida legislature may soon be without psychedelic advocates, writes Fred Rocafort in Harris Bricken’s Psychedelic Law Blog. Senator Lauren Book, a Democrat who sponsored a psychedelics senate bill in 2022, is “facing an intense primary challenge,” he writes, and representative Nicholas Duran, a Democrat who co-sponsored a 2021 bill, will be leaving the Florida house this year.
From June 21 to 28, esteemed art house Christie’s will be auctioning NFTs from a series called Cartography of the Mind. All proceeds will be donated to MAPS.
NPR reports on a University of Washington study exploring whether psilocybin could help treat depression in healthcare workers.
You’re all caught up! Have a great weekend. Stay tuned for a new 5 Questions on Monday.
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