Learn about the legal effort to make psilocybin available as a transformative therapy at the end of life.
My guest Kathryn Tucker is a Special Counsel at Emerge Law Group where she co-chairs the Psychedelic Practice Group. She is also the Executive Director of the End-of-Life Liberty Project and served two decades as Director of Advocacy and Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices, working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life. She shares the current legal case she is spearheading to allow terminally ill patients to try psilocybin as a palliative care medication and how psilocybin has already been shown to be hugely beneficial to patients at the end of life. Learn more about her work at:
This episode includes:
- The benefits of psilocybin therapy for palliative care
- Why terminally ill patients cannot currently access psilocybin therapy
- What are Right to Try (RTT) laws and how they may apply to psilocybin
- History behind psilocybin being labeled a Schedule I drug by the DEA
- Test case that has been filed in court based on Washington state and Federal RTT laws
- How “friends of the court” can be helpful to this case
- Why the success of this case could open access for patients in other states
- Oregon’s Psilocybin Therapy Law and implications for other states
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Virtual Workshop on Grief with Ben Kintisch of Life Review: The Hospice Musical – April 25th – Learn more here
- Vital Decisions’ National Healthcare Decisions Day Campaign: Pick a Proxy and Plant it Forward
- Interview with Ira Byock about psilocybin
- Seattle Times Article about Right To Try
- Book: How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
- Book: The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin
- Right to Try Psilocybin Advocacy Fund – donation page
- Sign up for the 2021 online reading group A Year of Reading Dangerously at this link
- Support your local bookstore by buying my books on Bookshop and Indiebound: 7 Lessons for Living from the Dying and The Journey from Ego to Soul
- Subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher Radio
- Check out the Series I’ve recorded in the past here
- Join the team at Patreon.com/eolu and get access to the EOLU mug: “Mind if we talk about death?” (only Patrons can purchase it). PLUS get our new bonuses: the monthly EOL News Update, movie reviews from 2 Doctors and a Movie, and automatic access to A Year of Reading Dangerously!
If you enjoy this content please share it with others and consider leaving a review on iTunes! Thanks again to all supporters on my page at Patreon.com/eolu! Your contributions make all the difference!