Horizons 2021: Creating the future of psychedelics
The 2020s will be the decade when psychedelic medicines shake up the way doctors treat an astonishing range of mental disorders.
This decade, too, will see millions more people turning to psychedelics to pursue personal growth, or simply to revel in the pleasures of getting high.
It’s increasingly clear, in other words, that psychedelics are moving from the fringes of American culture to the mainstream. What’s not clear is how we’re going to get from here to there.
Last weekend, Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics, a conference in New York City, brought together scientists, advocates, entrepreneurs, investors and assorted hangers-on to dig into some of the thorny issues raised by the so-called psychedelic renaissance. It was an exhilarating moment for those of us who are excited by the potential of psychedelics.
Still, the conference generated many more questions than answers.
Will psychedelics go mainstream via a medical model that entails FDA approval for specific drugs for specific conditions, distribution through licensed practitioners and funding by third-party insurers, with all the bureaucratic obstacles that those processes entail? Will Oregon’s model of psilocybin for all adults, albeit under strictly regulated conditions, spread to neighboring…
