Cancer Patients' Case To Use Psilocybin Under Right To Try Law Dismissed By Fed Appeals Court

As the psychedelics space gains traction on many levels, a number of studies are being conducted to examine whether psychedelic medications can or should be used to treat depression in cancer patients.

Over the years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) even designated a number of psilocybin trials as "breakthrough therapies" for treating severe depression, New Atlas wrote.

Novamind NM NVMDF, a company in the psychedelics space that operates several mental health clinics in Utah, announced in October a new program for palliative care patients experiencing chronic and serious illnesses.

While scientists say psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in "magic mushrooms," could one day be reclassified as medicine, terminally ill patients are taking a rocky road as they seek access to it.

What Happened?

A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, comprised of three judges, dismissed a lawsuit filed in March by patients and Seattle-based palliative care physician Dr. Sunil Aggarwal against the DEA, Marijuana Moment writes.

In a letter sent earlier, the agency said that there was no way for Aggarwal's clinic, the Advanced Integrative Medical Sciences (AIMS) Institute, to dispense a synthetic form of the psilocybin under state and federal right-to-try (RTT) laws, leaving patients with no path forward, the lawyers argued.

The federal Right to Try law, passed in 2018, allows "the use of unapproved medical products by patients diagnosed with a terminal illness in accordance with State law."

The Ninth Circuit panel rejected the lawsuit on procedural grounds, highlighting that the court lacked jurisdiction considering that DEA's letter was not a reviewable decision.

"In short," the published opinion filed Monday says, "AIMS' issue is not with the DEA's letter, but with the CSA's criminalization of psilocybin use, subject to narrow exemptions. An advice letter recognizing that Congress has not yet made an exception to the CSA to allow for the legal use of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes is not an agency decision."

What's Next?

Plaintiffs in the case plan to push for access under Right to Try laws through other means, including filing a petition for rescheduling and a waiver request, their attorney Kathryn Tucker told Marijuana Moment in a statement.

"DEA must accommodate duly enacted state and federal Right-to-Try laws, as mandated by the Controlled Substances Act," Tucker said. "The Petition for Rescheduling offers DEA an alternative and equally compelling way to create a pathway so that terminally ill patients can access to psilocybin. Time is of the essence."

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