A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official says the agency is keeping a \u201cvery close eye\u201d on psychedelics research and policy amid the growing reform movement, and that includes exploring issuing new guidance to ensure that veterans are protected from losing their federal benefits over the use of substances like psilocybin.<\/p>\n
Ilse Wiechers, deputy executive director of VA\u2019s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, provided insights into the department\u2019s thinking on psychedelics during a webinar hosted by the RAND Corporation on Thursday. An Oregon regulator and veterans advocate also joined the conversation.<\/p>\n
VA has been \u201cworking together on thoughtful plans around how to move things forward in terms of both our policy and ongoing research\u201d on psychedelics, Wiechers said, adding that officials are \u201chaving meetings with stakeholders, both internal and external, including some of the agencies that are funding psychedelic research at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the department isn\u2019t directly funding clinical trials into entheogenic plants and fungi right now, the VA official pointed out that it is recruiting for future studies and actively hosting research projects on the substances on its campuses. It has also been funding and promoting studies into other \u201cinnovative treatments\u201d like ketamine and cannabinoids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think psychedelics comes next, following some of the work we\u2019ve been doing in those areas prior to now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In the interim, Wiechers said it\u2019s important to act carefully when it comes to veterans who are using, or plan to use, psychedelics as part of their own treatment. As a general rule, VA would discourage experimental use outside of a clinical trial, but she said the relationship between the agency\u2019s doctors and patients must be preserved in a way that doesn\u2019t deter people from being honest about their experiences.<\/p>\n
That includes \u201cwhether they\u2019re engaging in this recreationally or if they\u2019re engaging it in a therapeutic setting and receiving this treatment elsewhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
VA already has explicit guidance in place for clinicians that makes clear that they can discuss marijuana use with veterans, even if they can\u2019t currently issue recommendations in a state with a medical cannabis program. Importantly, it also clarifies that veterans won\u2019t lose their benefits over marijuana use. That guidance is actively being updated<\/a>.<\/p>\n With more states exploring psychedelics reform<\/a>, with proposals ranging from decriminalization to legalization for therapeutic use<\/a>, a question has emerged about whether VA will move to adopt comparable guidance for veterans who take psychedelics.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something that we have to think about carefully and probably move the needle on that guidance sooner rather than later because I know when we when we established that guidance for medical cannabis use, it really helped open up the communication again between many of our veterans and our providers, and I want to ensure that we can continue to do that in this space as well,\u201d Wiechers said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think ensuring that we have some clear guidance, that may be one of our next steps to get that in place so we have those protections for our patients and our providers,\u201d she said in response to a question submitted for the webinar by Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n Paula Schnurr, another VA official who participated in the event<\/a>\u00a0but in a non-official capacity, added that the \u201cbottom line here is this is an exciting time in research.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still at an early stage\u2014and if you are a consumer or you\u2019re a clinician, it\u2019s important to to find out what the evidence is so that whatever choices you make are informed by the best science,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Brett Waters, executive director of Reason for Hope and co-founder of the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition, talked about the push for psychedelics reform in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill, where he said a bipartisan Senate bill from Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) to mandate rescheduling of psychedelic breakthrough therapies<\/a> will soon be re-filed in the new Congress.<\/p>\n He said that \u201cthe laws [around psychedelics] are going to change much faster than they did, I think, for cannabis.\u201d The substances were placed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) for \u201cpretty much purely political reasons,\u201d but that now means there\u2019s an extra \u201cburden\u201d of proof to get them out without legislative action.<\/p>\n What can help, he said, would be a greater contribution of government funding for psychedelics research to further demonstrate the therapeutic potential of substances like psilocybin and MDMA.<\/p>\n Wiechers said that she appreciated that point, because \u201cthe [reform] legislation is so far ahead of the evidence and the limited data we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Early research on psychedelics \u201clooks promising, but rigorous research can really kill a hypothesis,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so I think we need to know about benefits and harms.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a recent report from VA\u2019s Evidence Synthesis Program (ESP)<\/a> concluded that psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin show promise in the treatment of certain mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe depression.<\/p>\n Congressional lawmakers separately released a joint explanatory statement<\/a> for a must-pass defense bill late last year that contains a directive for the military to examine the potential of \u201cplant-based therapies\u201d like cannabis and certain psychedelics for service members.<\/p>\n A VA official told Congress in September that the government is\u00a0monitoring research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0\u201cvery, very closely,\u201d but that treatment involving the substances is not yet part of the \u201cstandard of care\u201d for military veterans.<\/p>\n DEA separately\u00a0released its final 2023 production quotas<\/a> for drugs to be used in research\u2014and the agency is now calling for even more manufacturing of psychedelic compounds like MDMA, psilocyn and 5-MeO-DMT than the existing significant increases it had initially proposed for this year.<\/p>\n The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) published a notice of information in November<\/a>\u00a0giving researchers guidance on the types of studies it\u2019s interested in funding for the development of psychedelic drugs to treat certain mental health conditions, pointing out limitations for animal-based research and rules for trials involving children.<\/p>\n Air Force Is Granting Far More Marijuana Waivers To Recruits Who Test Positive For THC Than It Expected Under Pilot Program<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype<\/a> and Apollo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post VA Official Talks Need For Psychedelic Research And Administrative Guidance To Protect Veterans Who Use Substances Like Psilocybin<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official says the agency is keeping a \u201cvery close eye\u201d on psychedelics research and policy amid the growing reform movement, and that includes exploring issuing new guidance to ensure that veterans are protected from losing their federal benefits over the use of substancesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61050,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61049\/revisions\/61050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: VA Official Talks Need For Psychedelic Research And Administrative Guidance To Protect Veterans Who Use Substances Like Psilocybin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"