A newly-formed political action committee aims to back candidates for office that back the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, NBC News reports. The Psychedelic Medicine PAC also aims to secure federal funding to further education and research efforts for psychedelics but stops short of calling for full legalization or decriminalization of the substances.
In an interview with NBC News, Ryan Rodgers, co-founder and executive director of Psychedelic Medicine PAC, said the group has “to convince a historically stubborn audience around psychedelics that it’s not the 1960s.”
“People aren’t going to stare into the sun for their eyes to blow out. People aren’t going to jump off a building. This is about healing trauma. It’s not about recreation.” — Rodgers to NBC News
Melissa Lavasani, the group’s co-founder and executive director, told NBC News that “a research approach and a science-drive approach is really the path of least resistance.”
“It’s going to take a little longer – it’s a very slow approach and it’s very methodical what we’re trying to do,” she said, “but it’s a way to ensure people feel comfortable buying into this issue.”
The group is in the early stages of fundraising but aims to raise $10 million in the first year.
Dustin Robinson, founder of Iter Investments, a psychedelics venture capital firm, told NBC News that the group is “going to have an extremely hard time” if they pushed for federal reforms such as decriminalization or rescheduling.
“But if their goal is to create more policies around what’s happening with psychedelics in the therapeutic space, the federal government appears very open to that,” he said in the report.
So far, Oregon and Washington, D.C. voters have approved reforms to allow the therapeutic use of psychedelics. Last year, the Biden administration indicated it was considering the possibility of creating a task force to study psychedelics, anticipating the Food and Drug Administration would approve psychedelic therapies in the coming years.
