Psychedelic therapies are making rapid inroads on the legal front.
Residents of both Washington D.C. and Oregon will vote on decriminalizing psilocybin mushrooms this November and the city council in Ann Arbor, Mich., home to the University of Michigan, this week voted in favor of a resolution to make “investigating or arresting anyone in the purchase, seizure, growing, cultivation or distribution of entheogenic plants or plant compounds the lowest priority of local law enforcement.” Denver residents took a similar step in 2019.
Broader acceptance is coming.
But, as highlighted by a story this week in The Washington Post Magazine, the playing field for many psychedelic therapies is still not level.
For one thing, retreats and experiences can be prohibitively expensive for many, with price tags that can range from the low thousands to well into the five figures depending on the amenities offered. And that’s to say nothing of the challenges that people of color face when dealing with illegal substances.
“The gathering — which featured talks on drug legalization and systemic racism, presentations on Indigenous healing methods, experiential group exercises, and even a dance performance — was groundbreaking. It was historic not only because it was the first such training for therapists of color, but because it marked a turning point in the mainstreaming of psychedelics. Many of the organizers and presenters are part of a larger effort to diversify the world of psychedelic healing…
They are pushing back against the popular narrative that psychedelics originated in White, mid-century countercultural movements and, perhaps most significant, fighting to ensure that the new field of psychedelic medicine — often touted as a miracle for long-standing and deep-rooted struggles like treatment-resistant depression, addiction, anxiety and PTSD — will be accessible to all. This includes Black and non-White communities that have been historically over-policed and heavily incarcerated for possession or sales of some of these substances. (White people and Black people are equally likely to use illegal drugs, a 2009 Human Rights Watch report found, but Black people are arrested for drug offenses at much higher rates than White people.)”
One of the speakers at the inaugural Psychedelic Medicine & Cultural Trauma Workshop in Louisville that was featured in the story put a sharp edge on this point:
While White people might see psychedelic use as edgy or controversial, there is little legal risk in White use of these substances.
This is a problem that stretches far beyond the psychedelics market, of course, but it’s a wrinkle that the industry will need to address as it moves toward mainstream acceptance.
In medical settings, access is everything. When some patients feel free to try or follow new types of treatments that others don’t – whether it’s due to costs, social acceptance or, as in this case, different legal standards for people of color – it immediately walls off a portion of the market for those treatments. Rather than competing for the millions of depression patients that are currently in therapy and could benefit from psychedelic treatments, providers are instead looking at only a portion of that potential market.
It’s a limiting factor that could hold back the whole industry and slow its eventual legalization.
What can psychedelic companies, whether they run retreats, are developing new therapies, working on psychedelic compounds in the lab, etc. do to get past this hurdle?
The answer: Simply address it.
It would be naive to suggest that the industry is in any position to undo generations of social injustice in this country, or that it is even capable of changing minds in that way. After all, psychedelic companies are focused right now on claiming legitimacy for themselves; they don’t need to try to do too much.
But let’s at least talk about it, right?
Let’s add this to the conversation around psychedelic therapies and mainstream use. At some point, we’re going to need to make this as accessible as possible to anyone who might benefit from it.