Three Things To Read This Week
1. Governor Newsom Urges California Legislature To Send Him Psychedelic Medicine Legislation.
“Both peer-reviewed science and powerful personal anecdotes lead me to support new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a statement vetoing legislation that would have decriminalized—as opposed to regulating the therapeutic use of—psychedelic substances such as psilocybin. The Governor continued:
“Psychedelics have proven to relieve people suffering from certain conditions such as depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other addictive personality traits. This is an exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it. California should immediately begin work to set up regulated treatment guidelines replete with dosing information, therapeutic guidelines, rules to prevent against exploitation during guided treatments, and medical clearance of no underlying psychoses. Unfortunately, this bill would decriminalize possession prior to these guidelines going into place, and I cannot sign it. I urge the legislature to send me legislation next year that includes therapeutic guidelines. I am, additionally, committed to working with the legislature and sponsors of this bill to craft legislation that would authorize permissible uses…”
The approach that Newsom is championing is similar to those adopted in Oregon and Colorado.
Oregon’s model: In 2020, voters passed ballot measure 109, which created a regulatory scheme; trains and licenses facilitators to administer psilocybin therapy; and accredits facilities throughout the state where these treatments take place. Starting this year, licensed facilitators have begun providing psilocybin-assisted therapy.
Colorado’s model: As Tiney Ricciardi explains for the Denver Post, Colorado voters passed Measure 122 last year, which authorizes the use of “psilocybin and psilocin in therapeutic settings and paves the way for the establishment of healing centers where adults 21 years old and up can use the substances under the supervision of licensed professionals.” The measure also “decriminalizes the personal growing, use and sharing of [psilocybin and other natural medicines].”
Notably, Governor Newsom’s signing statement could be read to suggest that he would support both regulated use and decriminalization. Specifically, Newsom wrote in his veto statement: “this bill would decriminalize possession prior to [regulated treatment] guidelines going into place, and I cannot sign it.”
Newsom’s call for a regulated approach to making psychedelic medicine accessible to Californians drew praise from across the state. For example, Greg Gilman wrote in Los Angeles Magazine (“Gavin Newsom Signals 'Broader' Psychedelic Reform in California Despite Decriminalization Veto”) that…
“The governor made it clear this past weekend in his veto explanation that he views the current psychedelic renaissance as "an exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it … He's absolutely right. A flood of recent research has found that psilocybin — the hallucinogenic compound found in about 200 species of mushrooms — is particularly effective in treating the conditions Newsom mentioned above, and then some. Don't forget about anxiety and chronic headaches, and whatever applications researchers discover next …”
According to reporting by Anabel Sosa for the Los Angeles Times, Senator Scott Weiner, the author of the decriminalization bill that Newsom vetoed, has “pledged to reintroduce legislation for next year that would focus on the therapeutic use of the psychedelics, as Newsom requested.”
Upshot: It appears likely that the residents of the most populous state in America will soon have access to psychedelic medicine—a likely game-change for people suffering from conditions such as treatment resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety.
2. “As Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Grows, So Does Interest From A New Group: Chaplains.”
For NPR, Deena Prichep reports on a new trend of chaplains—“religious professionals who work in non-religious settings [such as] hospitals, schools, [and] battlefields”—working “alongside mental health practitioners to administer the psychedelic drug to terminal cancer patients.” Caroline Peacock, an Episcopal priest who serves as director of spiritual health at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute, explained to NPR why chaplains are a good fit to facilitate psychedelic-assisted treatment: “We are with people in deep moments of grief, deep moments of pain, deep moments of life transition. And we know how to be with people in these very, very hard moments.”
Here’s more from NPR’s Prichep:
“Some chaplains are exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy because of their deep well of experience providing a non-judgmental presence to help make sense of life's difficult moments… many are also drawn to it because people taking these drugs often report what's described as a mystical experience. Anthony Bossis, a clinical psychologist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who has spent 15 years conducting psilocybin trials with patients facing advanced cancer[,] says [that] the research shows that the spiritual dimension of psychedelic treatment seems to be part of what makes the therapy therapeutic: ‘The findings have shown already that the mystical experience has been a predictor, or a mediator, in terms of better outcomes … and we are seeing rapid and sustained reductions in depression, anxiety, hopelessness, fear of death, in people who do have an advanced illness who have this experience.’”
3. Tribute To Dr. Roland Griffiths, Pioneer Of Psychedelic Medicine And Research.
Dr. Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral science and psychiatry whose landmark research into psychedelics helped to usher in a new era of scientific study of psychedelic-assisted treatments, died at his home in Baltimore on October 16 at the age of 77. Here is some excellent coverage of Dr. Griffiths’ life and work:
“Roland Griffiths [] led a renaissance in psychedelics research [and] in a landmark study, saw them as a legitimate way to help alleviate suffering.” For The New York Times, Penelope Green reports on the impact of Griffiths’ pioneering 2006 paper “that wasn’t just groundbreaking; it was mind-blowing.” Here’s more from The NYT:
“[The study] was the first double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study in decades to examine the psychological effects of a psychedelic on what scientists call ‘healthy normals’—healthy volunteers… This work involved trained doctors administering high doses of psilocybin to healthy people in a controlled, living room-like setting. Eighty percent of the participants described the experience as among the most revelatory and spiritually meaningful episodes of their lives…They described profound feelings … [and] such positive effects on their mood and behavior lasted for months and even years…”
“He helped cancer patients find peace through psychedelics. Then came his diagnosis.” For NPR, Rachel Martin sat down with Griffiths for an in-depth interview about his work with end-of-life cancer patients and his own cancer diagnosis. Griffiths “started working with a group of researchers and enthusiasts to develop a series of experiments testing the medical value of psychedelics [and] the results were astonishing,” Griffiths explained to the news station. “Not only did the drug reduce anxiety and depression in patients, for some of them it unlocked a spiritual experience.” Then Griffiths received a diagnosis of stage four colon cancer and began “looking at all this from the other side, [as] doctors [said] he only had a few months to live… [and] coming to grips with his own mortality, and the mystery of what comes next.”
“Griffiths' work generated immense scientific interest and helped patients suffering with depression and addiction.” For the Johns Hopkins University news service, Marc Shapiro writes a touching memorial to Griffiths’ work at the university, where he founded the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, and continued to publish groundbreaking science:
“[Griffiths] and his Johns Hopkins colleagues at the center published a JAMA Psychiatry paper that was the first rigorous controlled study showing that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy could effectively treat clinical depression… [Additional] groundbreaking studies published by Griffiths and his colleagues found that psilocybin had therapeutic effects in people who suffer from substance use disorder (smoking, alcohol, and misuse of other drugs) and existential distress caused by life-threatening disease."
“The science of psilocybin and its use to relieve suffering.” For TEDMED, the health and medicine spinoff of the TED Talk symposiums, Griffiths delivered a much-lauded 2016 talk about “the ways that psychedelics can be used to create spiritually meaningful, personally transformative experiences for all patients, especially the terminally ill.”
And here’s Oprah interviewing Dr. Griffiths earlier this year:
