Brookings January 25, 2022
In 2020, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure to legalize a psychedelic substance, psilocybin, which is still undergoing clinical trials. Now, the Oregon Health Authority is tasked with the unprecedented challenge of creating its own state-level versions of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) processes, from health provider certifications to accepted use cases.
Traditional sources of evidence, such as experimental academic studies and laboratory clinical trials, are still relatively scarce, so state officials will have to use the very same sources that originally fueled the state’s political movement: the internet.
Because of the illegality of their use, much of the innovation around psychedelic therapy has happened through underground networks of uncertified therapists and the wild west...