Will RFK Jr.’s push for psychedelic therapy help or hamper the emerging field?

Washington – For decades, supporters of psychedelic drugs have come to Washington with a provocative message: illegal and modified substances such as LSD and ECSTASY should be approved for Americans struggling with depression, trauma and other conditions that are difficult to deal with.

A presidential administration finally seems to agree.

“This line of therapy has a huge advantage if it is given in a clinical setting and we work very hard to make sure that this happens in the 12 months,” said Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently

His suggested calendar for psychedelic therapy lighting green even surprised the most optimistic supporters of drugs. And this occurs while psychedelics are piercing in deep red states such as Texas, where the former secretary of Trump’s office and ex-government Rick Perry has given his full support behind the effort.

The administration by the administration of psychedelics has triggered both the excitement and concerns on the part of those in the field, which fear that drugs will be discredited if they seem to be rushed to the market or are too closely linked to Kennedy, which is known for its controversial views of vaccines, antidepressants and flowers.

“I am quite optimistic,” explains Rick Doblin, whose organization has supported the medical use of MDMA (or ecstasy) since the 1980s. “But I also fear that the message that the public receives is” well, RFK loves psychedelics and now it is approved. “”

Under President Joe Biden, the FDA rejected MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, citing erroneous data and questionable research. The regulators called for a new study, probably taking several years. It was a major setback for Doblin and other defenders hoping to see the first American approval of a psychedelic for medical use.

But the agency seems ready to reconsider. FDA chief Marty Makary, who is Kennedy, described the evaluation of the MDMA and other psychedelic “an absolute priority”, announcing a list of initiatives that could be used to accelerate their approval.

A new program promises to accelerate drugs which serve “the health interests of the Americans”, by reducing their revision time by six months or more to as little as a month. Makary has also suggested greater flexibility on the requirements of certain drugs, potentially renouncing rigorous controlled studies that compare patients to a placebo group.

This approach, considered essential for high quality research, has long been a stumbling block for psychedelic studies, in which patients can almost always guess properly if they have received the drug or a dummy pill.

The American Department of Health and Social Services and the FDA have also recently hired several new employees with links with the psychedelic movement.

“These are all very promising signs that the administration is aware of the potential of psychedelics and tries to make openings that they are ready to approve them,” said Greg Frenstein, member of the Libertarian Reason Foundation, who also consults for psychedelic societies. “We have heard nothing about this in the Biden administration”

A spokesperson for HHS did not respond to a request for comments.

As a presidential candidate, Kennedy explained how his son and several close friends took advantage of the use of psychedelics to deal with sorrow and other problems.

A number of veterans who lobby for psychedelic access have already met the Trump veterans secretary, Doug Collins.

“What we see so far is positive,” Collins told the Chamber’s legislators in May.

But some experts are concerned about hope and the beatenment surrounding the psychedelics have taken lead over science.

Philip Corlett, psychiatric researcher at the University of Yale, said that bypassing rigorous clinical trials could withdraw the field and endanger patients.

“If RFK and the new administration are seriously in this work, there are things they could do to make it pass by meeting the benchmarks of medical science,” said Corlett. “I don’t think it happens.”

While Washington officials weigh the future of psychedelics, some states are advancing with their own projects in the hope of pushing the federal government. Oregon and Colorado have legalized psychedelic therapy.

And last month, Texas approved $ 50 million to study ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic made from a shrub from West Africa, as a treatment for opioid dependence, SSPT and other conditions. The research subsidy – the greatest gender by any government – adopted the support of the former governor of the GOP of the State, Perry, and the combat veterans, some who went to clinics in Mexico who offer ibogaine.

IBOGAINE appears on the ultra-restrictive list of the US government of illegal and annexed drugs, which also include heroin. Texas defenders therefore hope to build a national movement to facilitate restrictions on the search for its use.

“Government systems are slowly and ineffective,” said Bryan Hubbard of the Americans for Ibogaine, a group formed with Perry. “Sometimes you are limited in terms of progress you can make from the inside.”

Ibogaine is unique among psychedelics in its alleged advantages and risks. Small studies and anecdotal reports suggest that the drug may be able to considerably facilitate dependence and trauma. It has been sold for medical use in France for several decades from the 1930s, but the drug can also cause dangerous irregular cardiac rhythms, which can be fatal if they are not treated.

Some veterans who have taken the drug say that the risks can be managed and that the healing properties of ibogaine go far beyond antidepressants, mood stabilizers, advice and other standard treatments.

Marcus Capone fought with anger, insomnia and mood swings after 13 years as Seal Navy. In 2017, at the request of his wife Amber, he agreed to try the last resort. He described his first session of ibogaine as “a complete purge of everything”.

“But afterwards, I felt the full weight of my shoulders,” he said. “More anxiety, no more depression, life suddenly made sense.”

A non -profit organization founded by capones, veterans exploring treatment solutions or veterinarians, helped more than 1,000 veterans to travel abroad to receive ibogaine and other psychedelics.

But federal scientists have already examined the medication – three decades ago, when the National Institute on Drugs Abuse financed preliminary studies on its use as a treatment of drug addiction. The research was interrupted after identifying “cardiovascular toxicity”.

“It would have died in water”, in terms of victory for the approval of the FDA, said the longtime director of Nida Nora Volkow.

But Volkow said that his agency remained interested in psychedelics, including ibogaine, and finances an American drug manufacturer who strives to develop a safer synthetic version of the drug.

“I am very intrigued by their pharmacological properties and how they influence the brain,” said Volkow. “But you must also be very careful not to fall into the overhaul and be objective and rigorous to assess them.”

___

The Department of Health and Sciences of the Associated Press receives the support of the Department of Science Education from Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.