U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, is leading a bipartisan group of six lawmakers to urge the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to allow terminally ill patients to access therapeutic psilocybin treatments.
Although 41 states, including Oregon, and the federal government have passed Right to Try laws to give terminally ill patients access to investigational therapies, including psilocybin, the DEA has stood in the way, the lawmakers said.
“Research demonstrates that psilocybin provides immediate, substantial, and sustained relief from debilitating anxiety and depression in individuals with terminal illnesses,” the lawmakers, including Portland's Blumenauer, wrote in a letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
The letter goes on to say:
“Individuals with advanced cancer that are also suffering from treatment-resistant anxiety and/or depression have been found to experience significant reductions in both anxiety and depression, and improvements in mood, following a single guided session of psilocybin-assisted therapy, with no safety concerns or clinically significant adverse effects. Of note, researchers have also found that the benefits from such a treatment are sustained, with patients experiencing increases in measures of quality of life, life meaning, death acceptance, and optimism six months after treatment. We are excited by this research and the implications it has for our constituents suffering terminal illness.”
Oregon is crafting the first regulated psilocybin therapy system in the U.S. The program won’t roll out until early next year, as licensure, accountability and safety standards are currently in the works.