Office of Primary Care and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Program

Vermont Health Commissioner and Larner Professor of Medicine Mark Levine, M.D.

(NOVEMBER 19, 2024) The Brattleboro Reformer’s Green Mountain Vermont Cannabis News reports that members of a Vermont working group studying the use of psychedelics to improve mental health—including Vermont Health Commissioner and Larner Professor of Medicine Mark Levine, M.D., Vermont Department of Mental Health Medical Director Kelley Klein, M.D., and representatives from the Vermont Psychological Association, Vermont Board of Medical Practice, Vermont Medical Society, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Brattleboro Retreat, and Office of Professional Regulation—are not ready to endorse a state program at the moment but have their sights set on the future.

Concerns expressed within the group included “the practicalities of creating and enforcing standards of care in an environment of federal prohibition or without broad national consensus,” and “delaying access to this approach with appropriate safeguards given the mental health and addiction crisis in Vermont,” according to the group’s final report.

The group recommended extending the current working group, “with the expansion of participants to monitor the evolution of research and programs across the country and to facilitate the ability to research psychedelic therapies in Vermont.”

As psilocybin and other psychedelic substance use increases in Vermont and nationally, the group also recommends developing and funding harm reduction training and education for health practitioners and the public.