Biden's Younger Bro: President Is 'Very Open-Minded' On Benefits Of Psychedelics

President Joe Biden’s youngest brother, Frank Biden, recently called SiriusXM radio host Michael Smerconish and revealed that the U.S. President has been “very open-minded” in conversations held between the two around the medical benefits of psychedelics.

“The question is... is the world, is the U.S. ready for this?” the younger Biden asked, adding that he has done “a great deal” of research on the topic as a recovering alcoholic.

“We are on the cusp of a consciousness that needs to be brought about to solve a lot of the problems in and around addiction, but as importantly, to make us aware of the fact that we’re all one people, and we’ve got to come together," he said.

So far, the White House has not commented on the above. Still, there have been hints toward the recognition of these substances as alternative mental health treatments, including considerations to establishing a federal task force for monitoring the psychedelics space as well as the National Institute for Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) more frequent launch of research grants.

In June, Congress introduced a bipartisan bill creating a $75 million research grant program for psychedelics as a treatment among active duty military members. In March, legislation was reintroduced, requesting an update on the breakthrough therapies’ scheduling.

And last year, a Congressional Psychedelics Caucus was created.

Between 2017 and 2018, the FDA designated both MDMA and psilocybin as “breakthrough therapies,” providing an expedited path for their clinical development and both substances are currently advancing late-stage in-human trials toward treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) respectively.

More recently, the federal agency has given another step toward supporting clinical trials with psychedelics by releasing a non-binding draft guidance for researchers designing studies of the kind.

The news also comes on the heels of this year’s largest psychedelics gathering organized by the legendary nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) where attendants listened to speakers as diverse as NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, actor and environmentalist Jaden Smith, and former Texas GOP Governor Rick Perry, on these substances’ healing potential.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by Anne Mathiasz and AlenKadr on Shutterstock and Adam Schultz on Wikimedia Commons.