Legislation

Do you perceive the legal barriers limiting the research and use of psychedelics in medicine?

Do you want to support the wider inclusion of psychedelics in medical practice?

Would you like to support activities aimed at legislative changes to make psychedelic-assisted treatment more accessible?

Although the therapeutic potential of psychedelics is more than promising, we still find them on the list of prohibited substances without medical use. Current Czech legislation is not yet fully in line with the smooth inclusion of psychedelics in therapeutic practice.

By supporting this project of The PSYRES Foundation you will contribute to steps systematically aimed at the necessary legislative changes that will lead to the accessibility of treatment with psychedelics, education and a shift in the perception of their true potential.

Among the activities we carry out in this sense are legal analyses, proposals for legislative changes, and negotiations with legislators. We believe that, in conjunction with you, our efforts will bring significant changes in this area as well.

Changes in legislation supporting access to treatment

So far, the results of scientific research from all over the world point to the astonishing potential of psychedelics in the treatment of mental illnesses and for increasing the quality of human life.

Research into psychedelics was intensively carried out already in the 1950s and 1960s. Even then, scientists were trying to investigate the potential of psychedelics for the treatment of various diagnoses. Their possibilities of use for the treatment of people addicted to alcohol, patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, the treatment of anxiety and depression in patients in the terminal stage of terminal diseases, and many others were investigated. Psychedelic research seemed to be on its way to fulfilling its initial promises and expectations, but the tumultuous social development of the time brought with it a number of problems that ultimately proved fatal even for this field of scientific inquiry.

The declaration of the "War on Drugs" (1971) by US President Nixon did not only mean a societal ban on the use of most psychoactive substances - including psychedelic substances - but also a halt to very promising research. Even though there was no relevant data to justify the new legislation, psychedelics were classified as non-medicinal drugs by the UN. The Czechoslovak Republic also implemented these recommendations into its legal system. However, it was one of the last to end psychedelic research only in 1974.

Your financial contribution will help fulfill the following goals of our endeavor

• Support of activities aimed at obtaining ECOSOC status (consultant status) of the UN, which would allow us to bring the topic of the therapeutic potential of psychedelics to UN meetings (e.g. CND meeting of the Commission on Narcotics and Drugs).
• Support for expert creation of legislative, political, and economic analyses in the field of psychedelics (e.g. economic impacts of psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy, analysis of the UN conventions from 1961, monitoring of legislative changes in the world towards the introduction of psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy into the medical system, etc.).
• Support for the organization of meetings with government officials, the professional community (researchers, doctors, lawyers, members of professional societies, representatives of state authorities and institutions, etc.), and supporters of legislative change.
• Support for the involvement of Czech scientists in the framework of activities related to the legalization of psychedelic treatment in the bodies of the European Union.

The budget will depend on specific activities.