AdolescentsSet & SettingImplementation & Service DeliveryPublic Health, Prevention & Behaviour Change

A Public-Health-Based Vision for the Management and Regulation of Psychedelics

This policy article (2016) assesses the harms and benefits of psychedelics use in light of contemporary research and provides a public-health-based model for their regulation, which includes governance, supervision, set and setting controls, youth access, supply control, demand limitation, and evaluation.

Authors

  • Kenneth Tupper

Published

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
meta Study

Abstract

The Health Officers Council of British Columbia has proposed post-prohibition regulatory models for currently illegal drugs based on public health principles, and this article continues this work by proposing a model for the regulation and management of psychedelics. This article outlines recent research on psychedelic substances and the key determinants of benefit and harm from their use. It then describes a public-health-based model for the regulation of psychedelics, which includes governance, supervision, set and setting controls, youth access, supply control, demand limitation, and evaluation.

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Research Summary of 'A Public-Health-Based Vision for the Management and Regulation of Psychedelics'

Introduction

Haden and colleagues situate their paper in the context of growing dissatisfaction with prohibitionist drug policies and renewed scientific, medical, spiritual, and public interest in psychedelic substances. They define “psychedelics” broadly to include LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, ayahuasca, peyote, mescaline and related tryptamine and phenethylamine compounds. After noting that other normative frameworks (for example, religious freedom and human-rights or cognitive-liberty arguments) have been used to justify alternative legal treatment of psychedelics, the authors explain that their purpose is to examine regulation and management through a public-health lens. The paper aims to summarise recent research on psychedelics and then propose a public-health-based regulatory model for their production, distribution, supervision and use. The proposed model draws on prior work by the Health Officers Council of British Columbia and lessons from regulatory approaches to alcohol, tobacco and cannabis, with particular attention to governance, supervision, controls on set and setting, youth access, supply management, demand mitigation and monitoring/evaluation.

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Study Details

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