This Week in Psychedelics: Senators push NIH and FDA on psychedelics, and will insurance pay for psychedelics?
Plus: The State of Psychedelics and The Latest in Oregon
Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. Here’s the news of the week:
Will insurance pay for psychedelics? With Oregon rolling out psilocybin services in 2023 (assuming the federal government chooses not to enforce the federal prohibition of psilocybin) and experts anticipating FDA approval of MDMA in the next year, more people may soon be using psychedelics. Mental health advocacy group BrainFutures has released a new report laying out recommendations for ensuring equitable, high-quality standards for administering psychedelic-assisted therapy. (BrainFutures also released another report on psychedelic research, which we reported on in April.)
The new report includes discussion on how to create accessible treatment options and standards for training practitioners, but a third of the report is dedicated to insurance coverage for psychedelic-assisted therapy, or PAT. “Without public and private insurance coverage, costs will likely make PAT out of reach for many people,” the report says. If the FDA does approve psychedelics for therapeutic use, private insurance companies and publicly-funded programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans’ Affairs will need to determine whether and how these treatments could be covered as well as develop systems to code and bill for them.
The State of Psychedelics
Last week, around a dozen people gathered in Troy, New York for the inaugural meeting of the New York Psilocybin Action Committee (NYPAC). The state currently has three psychedelics-related bills in the works: 6065, which proposes the state “decriminalize psilocybin and allow further research into the study of the drug and its beneficial uses for treatment”; 7928, which would create a psychedelic research institute and programs to study psychedelic-assisted treatment for mental health issues; and 8569, which would allow medical professionals to be trained in administering psilocybin therapy.
Since their meeting on May 10, the group has had discussions with state lawmakers, says founding member Corinne Carey. In April, New York Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Patrick Burke, who sponsored the state’s three bills, appeared with Carey at an event about decriminalizing psilocybin at the state level. The group supports all three bills, says Carey. “NYPAC believes we need full legalization of psilocybin, but we want to make sure that folks who need mental health alternatives gain access to these plant medicines as soon as possible.” The New York Psilocybin Action Committee plans to meet again in June.
There has never been a more exciting – or bewildering – time in the world of psychedelics. Don’t miss a beat.
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Senators push NIH and FDA on psychedelics. Last week, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) wrote a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health and the commissioner of the Federal Drug Administration. The letter commended the NIH for holding their January 2022 conference on psychedelics as therapeutics and requested more information about federal funding for psychedelic research, regulatory barriers to conducting such research, and gaps in current knowledge. Both Schatz’s and Booker’s home states have passed psychedelics-related legislation in the last year — Hawaii’s Senate unanimously passed a bill creating a task force to study psilocybin, and New Jersey reduced penalties for possessing psilocybin — so this letter could be a way to push changes in psychedelics policy forward at the federal level.
The Latest in Oregon
Federal tax code complicates state psilocybin business. While the manufacture, sale, and distribution of psilocybin will soon become legal in Oregon, it still remains illegal federally. That means businesses are subject to section 280E of the U.S. tax code, which does not allow businesses to take deductions if their work “consists of trafficking in controlled substances.” Reporting for Business Insider, Yeji Jesse Lee writes that cannabis firms have been protesting the tax code for years; the regulations could make it difficult for psychedelics companies to deduct “regular business expenses like office supplies or health-insurance premiums.” It’s also unclear which companies 280E would apply to; businesses that don’t directly grow or provide psilocybin mushrooms might be able to argue their way out. (Lee also previously wrote about how Field Trip’s split into two companies might be a way to stay listed on the Nasdaq; perhaps the split is also a strategy for avoiding section 280E tax problems.)
Psychedelics lawyers, psychedelics accountants, psychedelics realtors. For more about psychedelic-adjacent businesses, read the latest in the Harris Bricken Psychedelics Law Blog. Vince Sliwoski details other rules that could affect professionals working with psilocybin providers, like lawyers, realtors, insurance brokers, and accountants. It’s unlikely banks will support these businesses, for reasons Sliwoski laid out in a previous post. Still, lawyers and accountants are making tweaks to their professional organizations’ rules and regulations to allow professionals to work with psilocybin businesses.
Over the last three weeks, psychedelics researchers have discussed a recent brain imaging study published in Nature Medicine, a critique of the paper, and a response to that critique. In a piece for VICE, Shayla Love discusses the “changing ecosystem” in which this discussion has taken place, and examines the researchers’ claims.
Thomas Hartle, a 54-year-old man in Quebec with terminal colon cancer, became the first person in his province to receive clearance from Health Canada to access psilocybin-assisted therapy, CBC News reports.
MAPS announced their compliance team will review allegations that board member Vicky Dulai engaged in elder abuse. “This decision is an about-face for MAPS, which previously said it had not investigated because no credible claims had been made,” reports STAT’s Olivia Goldhill.
As the World Economic Forum meets next week, the psychedelics industry is arriving in Davos. Businesspeople, researchers, and shamans will hold a week-long psychedelics program in the center of town, Bloomberg reports.
You’re all caught up! Have a great weekend. Stay tuned for a new 5 Questions on Monday.
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