By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger
A Vermont advisory group is not recommending a state psychedelic therapy program after group members could not agree on its potential risks and benefits.
In a final report issued mid-Noveber, the Psychedelic Therapy Advisory Working Group declined to support the creation of some kind of a state-backed program involving therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, specifically psilocybin mushrooms. Instead, the working group recommended that it continue to study the substances.
“Concerns expressed included the practicalities of creating and enforcing standards of care in an environment of federal prohibition or without broad national consensus,” the report’s authors wrote.
Those conclusions — or lack thereof — are the result of four months of meetings this year by the group, which includes representatives of the Vermont Dept. of Health and Dept. of Mental Health, the Vermont Psychological Association, the Vermont Medical Society and other institutions.
Lawmakers earlier this year tasked the group with considering the effects of decriminalizing psychedelic drugs and creating a program that would allow for Vermonters to undergo psychedelic-assisted therapy.
A small but growing body of research has shown promise in using psychedelic drugs, particularly psilocybin, to treat a range of mental health disorders, including major depressive disorder, PTSD and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Nationwide, advocates have pushed for greater acceptance of psychedelics. A handful of cities have decriminalized psilocybin, and Oregon, Colorado and Utah allow or soon will allow limited therapeutic use of the drugs, according to the report.
But psilocybin is illegal at the federal level, and the federal Food and Drug Administration has not approved a therapeutic version of the drugs.
That fact divided the working group, according to the report. Some members felt it best to wait until that federal approval, while others said that Vermont could act sooner “given the mental health crisis, current good evidence for psilocybin in particular, and to facilitate safe access to this approach.”
Ultimately, the working group made two recommendations.
The first was to expand the working group and continue its work to monitor developments in psychedelic therapy, and the second was to fund psychedelic education and harm reduction training for practitioners and patients.
“The Psychedelic Therapy Advisory Group attests to the curiosity and hope for the potential strong application of the research on psychedelics as medicines and therapy, and that a segment of the population may benefit from these applications in the future,” the report reads.
