"Even as I. Glenn Cohen, faculty director of the Law School's Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics introduced the event's title - "Toward Psychedelics Access: Go Faster or Slower?" - he acknowledged it was an oversimplification. "The public discourse sometimes seems to be drawn over these extreme questions," said Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law. "And although there are places where these are mutually exclusive 'or's,' we're going to try to bring the 'and' into the equation, too.""
"Some use the term broadly to talk about drugs from ketamine and MDMA to psilocybin and cannabis. Though Yaden's research tends to focus on "classic psychedelics" like psilocybin, he stressed that it's hard to generalize the clinical effects of psychedelic drugs. While many people are excited about their healing potential, he expressed caution and said there are "real risks" to using these substances."
Public debate frames two extremes: accelerate psychedelic legalization to expand therapeutic access for urgent problems such as veteran suicide, or slow adoption to ensure thorough safety research. Stakeholders advocate combining faster access with rigorous evaluation rather than choosing one approach exclusively. Definitions of 'psychedelic' vary widely, spanning ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin, and cannabis, and clinical effects differ across substances. Research funding constraints limit knowledge about safety and efficacy. Large, well-powered NIH-funded studies with active controls are necessary to clarify benefits and risks. Caution is emphasized because promising healing potential coexists with real risks.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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