If the FDA approves a psychedelic medicine in 2026, it will come with a REMS program (a set of safety rules) requiring you to receive it only at certified treatment centers, not at home, and you'll have to stay under medical observation for at least 6 hours after you take it. The FDA learned this from esketamine (Spravato), where they required 2-hour monitoring, and they won't loosen those rules for a Schedule I drug because a bad headline about someone misusing it could sink the whole program.
FDA's esketamine (Spravato) REMS required in-office administration and 2-hour post-dose monitoring — FDA will not loosen that precedent for a Schedule I substance with greater abuse/diversion concern. Institutional risk aversion is high: a headline about unsupervised psychedelic misuse post-approval would be politically catastrophic. The 72-hour figure in the original prediction is likely too aggressive and unfalsifiable (few trials use that window); 6-hour minimum is grounded in esketamine precedent and plausible extension. Conditional framing preserves falsifiability — if no approval occurs, prediction is void.