02/22/2025
It’s the preparation and the integration that creates lasting change; because you didn’t just come for a great six hours - you came for a great rest of your life.
Last year I testified on behalf of creating a Task Force! We now have one!!
On this day 2024
and all the people who testified today on behalf of Maryland HB 0548 in Annapolis with the goal of establishing a task force to decriminalize psychedelics.
Having a psychedelic experience with preparation, and integration will completely uplevel your psychedelic experience. It will support changes that a psychedelic experience promises. Having a guide will allow you to feel safe and emotionally supported, bringing in spiritual practices, and intention.
The following is my testimony today:
My name is Deborah Servetnick. I am a retired Baltimore County Public School teacher and I’m Founder and Director of the non-profit ServeMedicine, providing a free guided ketamine journey to people with a life-threatening illness or end of life diagnosis.
When I received a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in 2011 I went through chemo, surgery, radiation, and reconstruction. My daughter was 12. I was deeply in love with my husband. I live in Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University was leading psychedelic studies for a cancer diagnosis with anxiety and depression. That covered me. I got so sick from the treatment I wanted to die. I was out of work and in bed for a year. I felt that I was a burden to my family and the side effects from the treatment were so awful that my balance was affected and I couldn’t walk, I could barely finish a sentence or remember what I said, I couldn’t hold a pen or type - which made returning to my job stressful and horrible, my skin hurt, and I had spots all over my body. Some of those side effects lasted years, and some I have to this day. I was scared and I saved my crying for the shower because I didn’t want my husband or my daughter to hear me. But they knew. I was hard to live with and when my daughter and I were Christmas shopping at Towsontown Mall she said to me, “Mom, I know you want to die because you keep walking in front of the cars.” I knew I needed help.
I had used Psychedelics in my past, and I knew their deep value as a reset and as a spiritual companion. I also knew they were having positive effects, even life-changing effects for people with a cancer diagnosis. I pinned all my hopes on getting into the study at JHU; going through the EKG, and the lab tests wondering how depressed I’d have to be to be accepted. And then I was afraid I’d be too depressed to be accepted. I was admitted to the study; the inherent challenges were the inspiration behind starting my my nonprofit - I didn’t want anyone to have to turn cartwheels or argue for their limitations to get access to psychedelics.
My mushroom journeys led to my recovery and a lot more. I got to see how I had been living my life, how I wanted to live my life, and saw a clear route to being able to do that once I had integrated my psychedelic experience. My anxiety and depression lifted and my family told me I was easier to live with.
It’s been 12 years and I know that JHU psychedelic study saved my life. Maryland has already led the way. We have decades of studies demonstrating how beneficial Psychedelics can be in resolving anxiety and depression, treating PTSD, and in making people feel connected to the spiritual side of their nature and to the God given beauty in nature itself. Yet Psychedelics are still classified Schedule 1. Let’s not make the same mistake we did with cannabis, taking decades to approve medical ma*****na. We forced people to obtain their substances outside Maryland and made them so desperate for help they were willing to use an illegal substance without even testing it. This will save lives. It will contribute positively to our economy and infrastructure.
It will change the way medicine is seen. Had I stayed on chemo, I would be dead.
Cannabis and Psychedelics help me to see the value of my life and the gratitude I had. It didn’t give me the side effects that I had from the treatment and it didn’t require me to use it for an extended period of time. Those of you in this room who are using medicine that requires a daily dose or multiple doses a day would be surprised to see how efficacious psychedelic medicine can be, and how sustainable the results of treatment are.
Since my recovery from cancer, I have been trained by MAPS and Naropa University in working with people with M**A, psilocybin, and ketamine. I created a nonprofit to work with people at end of life, or a life-threatening illness, because you and your family members deserve better. Creation of a Task Force in Maryland is the first step to making psychedelic medicines within reach of everyone.
Please vote to approve the Task Force.
