PT 610 - Victoria Litman - The Future of Psychedelic Regulation Is Local
Psychedelics Today
Psychedelics Today, LLC
4.6 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we sit down with Victoria Litman, M.Div., J.D., LL.M., to discuss why the future of psychedelic access in the United States is being shaped not by federal agencies, but by the bold actions of individual states. As a legal scholar and writer focusing on drug policy, Victoria breaks down the significance of the FDA's 2024 rejection of psychedelic-assisted therapy, and why that decision might be less of a setback than it seems.
We explore how state-level initiatives like Oregon's Psilocybin Services Act and Colorado's Natural Medicine Health Act are setting the stage for a new model of access—one rooted in harm reduction, personal liberty, and existing regulatory infrastructure. Victoria discusses the importance of the Tenth Amendment and the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, which allow states to move forward regardless of federal inaction.
Rather than waiting for slow-moving federal institutions, Victoria argues that states can build safe, scalable systems now—especially by leveraging cannabis infrastructure for psychedelic regulation. She also touches on the ethical and cultural implications of this transition, including protections for spiritual and religious use.
If you're wondering what psychedelic policy will look like in the years ahead, this episode offers an insightful and hopeful roadmap.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody and welcome back back to psychedelics today. |
| 0:23.3 | This is Joe Moore. |
| 0:24.7 | Today on the show, we have a special guest. |
| 0:28.2 | I'm excited about this one. |
| 0:29.4 | Victoria Litman, a M-D-D-L-L-L-LM, and L-LM is a more legal than large language model. |
| 0:39.3 | And we get into all sorts of stuff. |
| 0:41.3 | Victoria recently wrote an article for the Cato Institute called |
| 0:45.3 | The Future of Psychedelic Regulation is Local. |
| 0:49.3 | Subtitle, States have already demonstrated that they can build |
| 0:52.3 | alternative frameworks for drug liberalization |
| 0:55.3 | grounded in harm reduction. And it's a really good case that states don't necessarily need to |
| 1:03.1 | wait for long, slow progress at the federal level. And perhaps it's actually optimal to have |
| 1:10.3 | more state model. So read the article. and perhaps it's actually optimal to have more state model. |
| 1:13.2 | So read the article. |
| 1:14.4 | We linked it in the show notes or you can just find it. |
| 1:17.4 | A future of psychedelic regulation is local. |
| 1:20.6 | Yeah, we'll link it in the show notes as well. |
| 1:22.9 | And I really like this because we go all over the place. |
| 1:25.8 | We talk about Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Alaska. |
| 1:28.8 | We talk about a little bit of the FDA flub with MDMA. We talk about Matt Zorn as being the new psychedelic czar. |
| 1:37.9 | And much more, I think there's a lot of really good insight here and spins that you might haven't heard elsewhere. |
| 1:45.3 | So thank you, Victoria, for joining us. |
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