Article: Powerful D.C. Republicans Drive Psychedelic Research Efforts

Lucid news reports the following

The legal future of medicinal psychedelics in Washington, D.C. may depend, in part, on the efforts of advocates with deep and longstanding ties to the Republican political establishment.

It’s all part of an outreach initiative by Melissa Lavasani, CEO and co-founder of the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, to secure a broad spectrum of political support by working to ensure that psychedelic research and questions of legislative and policy change remain bipartisan issues.

“PMC is the only Washington, D.C.-based member association working on psychedelic medicine policy, and we see this as an opportunity to engage with the U.S. government in a very practical way, and that means lawmakers on both sides of the aisle,” explained Lavasani.

That practical approach characterized Lavasani’s first psychedelic success; in 2020 she proposed a Washington, D.C. ballot measure, Initiative 81, to decriminalize psilocybin and other plant medicine in the nation’s capital. It passed with overwhelming support, in large part because Lavasani shared her own story as a “professional, working mom facing terrible depression,” as she put it, who was helped by psilocybin.

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Powerful D.C. Republicans Drive Psychedelic Research Efforts