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Psychedelics: New Frontiers in Alternative Medicine | vol. 5 no. 5 cannabissciencetech.com 10 feature / psilocybin therapy session would last five to six hours, rath- er than just two to three hours for keta- mine," Dr. Aggarwal explained. How to Get There from Here Dr. Aggarwal said he is looking for any potential solutions that would permit offering this option to his patients, including the right-to-try suit. "We found producers willing to provide the psilocybin to us. The state pharmacy commissioner also signed off—so long as the DEA says it's okay," he stated. Others who have submitted amicus briefs in support of Dr. Aggarwal's suit include attorney generals from Washington and several other states, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and two former presidents of AAHPM. "Palliative care providers are eager to add these tools to their armamentariums for relieving suffering," said Dr. Aggarwal's lawyer, Kathryn Tucker, a patient rights ad- vocate, and Special Counsel with Emerge Law Group. "Nobody wants to imagine a terminally-ill patient left in unrelieved suf- fering when we know there's a tool that could bring relief to countless patients." Psilocybin is an investigational drug that has completed Phase I trials test- ing its safety and remains under investi- gation. "This drug qualifies under feder- al and state right-to-try laws, which were intended to allow seriously ill patients to access certain investigational drugs for therapeutic use," said Tucker. "But the DEA has refused to open that avenue to access. We are in a major effort to open that door, and we are committed to pur- suing it until successful." When the DEA declined Dr. Aggarwal's request to permit access to psilocybin for treatment, Tucker brought suit with two of his cancer patients to the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francis- co, California, which heard arguments in September 2021. At the end of January 2022, the court turned down the suit on the grounds that the DEA's ruling did not constitute a final judgment. Tucker's team brought the case back to the DEA for final determination regarding right-to-try ac- cess and filed a petition to reclassify psilo- cybin from Schedule I to Schedule II. "In the event of continued delays, we'll bring a mandamus action to try to get the court to intervene, because our clients do not have the time to withstand continued delay," she added. In 2020, Oregon enact- ed the nation's first state law to legalize access to psilocybin and a number of mu- nicipalities have also decriminalized the drug. But these efforts must still contend with federal law enforcement. The legal team has also reached out to members of Congress for their help. The Spiritual Path For Dr. Aggarwal, it is important that the administration of psilocybin happens in a wider context of preparation, accompani- ment, and post-treatment integration of the experience with a trained therapist. He hopes all of these services could be covered by health insurance. But he is also inspired by the religious groups that have sprung up with a spe- cial mission to offer psychedelic expe- rience as religious ritual, and in all the cross-cultural mixing of different tradi- tions surrounding psilocybin and other entheogens. Freedom-of-religion guar- antees make it possible for such groups to legally offer psychedelics as a sacra- ment. An example is the Sacred Garden Community in Oakland, California (1). "It might make sense to refer clients like mine who want to pursue psilocybin through such churches, just as palliative care refers patients to chaplains and oth- er religious leaders in the community," said Dr. Aggarwal. Patients could con- tact the church and start to do their own preparation, but palliative care could still be part of their preparation or inte- gration. "That could be easier until we get larger solutions." Bob Stanley, co-founder, Senior Gar- den Steward and pastor for Sacred Gar- den, says his church wants to avoid being misunderstood about psychedelic sub- stances, which it recognizes as sacra- ments and believes are covered under protections for religious freedom. But they take that responsibility very seri- ously. They want to learn from the sec- ular world and from its clinical and psy- chological insights, such as how to be safe with entheogens. "But this is a church. We engage these sacraments from a commitment to care, respect and integrity in relationship, offering faith- based community for preparation, cer- emony, and integration of what can be deeply divine experiences. This is a sa- cred practice for us," said Stanley. "Our goal is not to become some kind of legal workaround for medical provid- ers to allow for the therapeutic provision of psychedelics to their patients. We offer pastoral counseling," Stanley explained. "Every member of our church is open to the possibility of direct experience of the divine, whether that is called God, satori, or by other names. We believe the sacra- ments of our church can make the divine accessible in this lifetime." In particular, his group sees the end of life as a sacred time, with a distinct liturgy for the dying. "With the experience of the divine we believe we can have in this life, it's not just a pill you take and go there. It's about intention and asking," he says. "It's not a clinical experience." In the meantime, Dr. Aggarwal, his law- yers, and others will continue to push for legalized therapeutic access to psyche- delics like psilocybin, among other enthe- ogens that have attracted interest world- wide. The impressive, though preliminary and small-scale, results to date on the ben- efits of psilocybin, in particular, would seem to demand nothing less. Reference (1) https://sacredgarden.life. About the Author L A R RY B E R ES FO R D is a freelance writer based in California. Direct correspondence to: larryberesford@hotmail.com