The US Government is Interested in Psychedelics

In cooperation with Yale University, The Department of Veterans Affairs could be looking into treating mood disorders using psychedelics. Arising from NIH grant MH101498 is a patent application with claims for treating or preventing a mood disorder such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and major depressive episode in bipolar disorder (bipolar depression), among many more using a rapid-acting antidepressant (RAAD). The Yale study examined ketamine as a RAAD, yet the pending claims include classic psychedelics such as DMT, LSD, and psilocybin as potential RAAD candidates. Could the government be opening up to exploring the therapeutic properties of psychedelics to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is among the list of disorders?

In May 2021, the Texas legislature approved a first of its kind study examining psilocybin as a treatment for veterans with PTSD with backing from former Republican Governor Rick Perry and Texas Rep. Alex Dominguez, D-Brownsville, saying current treatments are not doing enough. 

This could be the restart of psychedelics research, taking us back to the days of Albert Hofmann and Humphrey Osmond exploring these “mind-manifesting” drugs, as Osmond called them. In the mid-1900s, psychedelics research was booming until abuse among young adults plagued society causing the government to implement the Controlled Substance Act in 1970. That hasn’t stopped companies and universities from patenting uses and synthesis of psychedelics, and certainly not the government. 

Patenting in psychedelics occurred in the mid-1900s and is returning now. Stay up to date by signing up for the Classic Psychedelics Patent Forecast®.