Novel ethical and policy issues in psychiatric uses of psychedelic substances

Classic psychedelics and related substances have shown promising initial research results. However, they raise a number of relatively novel ethical and policy challenges in light of their psychoactive properties, their emergence from the unregulated underground settings in which they have been used, their rapid commercialization, and the means and speed with which they are moving from Schedule 1 status to legalized use. All of these issues are affected by the current limits to the evidence base on use of psychedelics. Here we survey these novel challenges, illustrating the issues raised regarding each, and offering suggestions for how to address them.

Automated summary

Classic psychedelics and related substances have promising initial research results, but they raise novel ethical and policy challenges due to their psychoactive properties, emergence from unregulated underground settings, rapid commercialization, and the shifting from Schedule 1 status to legalized use.