Psychedelics in a Deregulated Policy Climate: What Might 2025 Bring?

Author(s): 

Lori Bruce

ISPS ID: 
isps25-02
Full citation: 
Bruce, L. (2025). Psychedelics in a Deregulated Policy Climate: What Might 2025 Bring? The American Journal of Bioethics, 25(1), 59–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2433420
Abstract: 
The US Food and Drug Administration (Citation2023) recently stated, “Psychedelic drugs have shown initial promise as potential treatments… However, these are still investigational products.” Indeed, there are some concerns about psychedelics which merit time and attention. Accordingly, the FDA recently denied Lykos Therapeutics’ application for MDMA-assisted therapy, stressing the need for additional research. The incoming Administration, however, is signaling increased interest in access to psychedelics while also favoring deregulation (Schumaker et al. Citation2024). Deregulation reduces government power with the aim of enabling businesses to operate more freely and efficiently, actions which may foster innovation and market growth. Given the price of sessions in Oregon’s regulated psilocybin market (at $750–1,200/trip) (Vaughan Citation2024), and a potentially lucrative psychedelics market, psychedelic deregulation offers numerous benefits. Deregulation could increase access, lower costs, and create more above-ground jobs. Deregulation may be welcomed by many communities, including for-profit drug developers and veterans’ advocacy groups who promote psychedelics for the treatment of PTSD. Others view regulation as “the spirit of democratic reform” protecting the public interest from corporate abuse (Horwitz Citation1986, 139). It follows that deregulation of psychedelics may increase the likelihood of unethical practices discussed by Indigenous scholars, including a rise in exploitative psychedelics tourism and “unsustainable foraging of Indigenous medicines [that] make them increasingly unavailable for local use” (Celidwen et al. Citation2023, 7). Deregulation may also decrease protections for psychedelics users and reduce transparency on psychedelic organizational practices, factors that could contribute to increased harms and boundary violations. The risks of deregulation are especially relevant in light of recent (and underdiscussed) findings on adverse outcomes and practices in psychedelic research.
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Publication date: 
2025
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