Apply Now: Psychedelics Bootcamp 2025
Upcoming Events
2025 PULSE Conference
Sacred Rights: Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality
Feb. 14, 2025, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Harvard Law School, RSVP for location
Hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center
Speakers will explore the complex relationships between psychedelics, religious communities, courts, Congress, and federal agencies. They will discuss how psychedelic law previously impacted spiritual practice and how it should in the future.
Featured News
Psychedelics for Healing
Harvard Magazine
Harvard’s I. Glenn Cohen on the use of “magic mushrooms” and other psychedelics in medicine, by Olivia Farrar.
Recent Research
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Separation of Drug Scheduling Powers
Mason Marks, Yale Law Journal Forum Petrie-Flom Center Senior Fellow Mason Marks writes how drug scheduling places substances believed to be harmful and addictive under strict federal control. In 1970, Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which split drug scheduling authority between executive departments to leverage their specialized expertise. Today, the CSA grants the…
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Facilitating the Sacred: The Role of Chaplains in Psychedelic Law and Policy
Victoria Litman, Psychedelic Intersections: 2024 Conference Anthology Petrie-Flom Center Fellow in Psychedelic Law and Spirituality Victoria Litman argues that “chaplains and other spiritually trained care providers should be included in the planning and regulatory process around psychedelics. This small step can help ensure that policymakers do not overlook the vital spiritually tuned care that chaplains can…
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Psychedelic Medicine Exceptionalism
I. Glenn Cohen and Mason Marks, The American Journal of Bioethics Research on psychedelic medicines is experiencing a revival. Some clinicians, scientists, and ethicists believe that psychedelics are so different from other treatments that they warrant special consideration in how they are researched, regulated, commercialized, and administered. Others argue that psychedelic medicines show clinical potential,…
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Focused Bodywork as Facilitated Communication: Cautionary Perspectives on Touch in Psychedelic Therapy
Neşe Devenot, The American Journal of Bioethics Project on Psychedelic Law and Regulation (POPLAR) affiliated researcher at the Petrie-Flom Center highlights ethical concerns about the practice of “focused bodywork” that was utilized in MDMA-assisted therapy clinical trials….
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Psychedelics, Psychosocial Support, and Psychotherapy: Why It Matters for the Law, Ethics, and Business of Medical Psychedelic Use
I. Glenn Cohen, Fordham Law Review This Essay, Part of a Symposium on Drug Law for the 21st Century, proceeds as follow. Part I briefly describes how vociferous this debate has become among advocates for the medical use of psychedelics. Part II discusses why this choice matters, legally and ethically. This includes a discussion of…
Latest News
What Western medicine can learn from the ancient history of psychedelics
David Cox explores what the long history of psychedelics, drawing from traditions in the Americas and Europe, could teach contemporary medical interest in these substances. Featuring CSWR Postdoctoral Fellow Osiris González Romero on Mesoamerican histories of psilocybin mushrooms.
Introducing Petrie-Flom’s POPLAR and PULSE Affiliated Researchers on Psychedelics
The Petrie-Flom Center is excited to announce our affiliated researchers for the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) and our new project, Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE). Through research, writing, workshops, and other projects, POPLAR and PULSE affiliated researchers will provide expertise and a range of perspectives on psychedelics law and policy. We look forward to learning from them and sharing their insights with our audiences.
Front of mind for Michael Pollan: psychedelics
What is unique to the new Harvard project, Pollan stressed, is its integration of expertise from the Divinity School and Law School as well as disciplines from across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, will also contribute. This diversity of thought will enable researchers to pursue nonclinical applications including those in the religious realm.
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