Novel ethical and policy issues in psychiatric uses of psychedelic substances

Abstract

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.