Event Description

Voters, lawmakers, and healthcare providers are experimenting with legal approaches to accessing psychedelics. Some take medical approaches by allocating funds for research or leveraging controversial federal policies like right-to-try or expanded access. Others reduce criminal penalties or create regulatory systems outside the federal framework, allowing access to psychedelics for promoting mental and physical wellness. As more jurisdictions enact legislation, some advocates worry non-medical approaches, such as religious and ceremonial use, might be left behind. This event assembled a panel of experts to compare legal approaches to accessing psychedelics.  

Panelists

• Welcome: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center
• Allison Hoots, JD, Founder and Principal Attorney, Hoots Law Practice; Of Counsel, Plant Medicine Law Group
• Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBe, Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania 
• Brett Waters, JD, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Reason for Hope; Associate, Winston & Strawn 
• Moderator: Mason Marks, MD, JD, Florida Bar Health Law Section Professor, Florida State University College of Law; Senior Fellow and Project Lead on the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School

This event is sponsored by the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.