BACKGROUND: Evidence supporting the relative safety and health efficacy of psychedelics, coupled with increasing usage, an opening policy landscape, and concerns surrounding equity, access, and potential harms, call for public health attention. However, public health engagement with psychedelics is low. This paper identifies how public health can scale the health benefits of psychedelics and reduce potential harms.

METHODS: This rapid critical review synthesizes evidence from published research on psychedelic efficacy, hazards, policy settings, and health needs. Driven by established innovation diffusion theory, it critically identifies and defines areas where public health can engage with psychedelics to promote health and reduce harms. Data were analyzed using iterative identification and examination of thematic content.

RESULTS: Basic awareness of psychedelics is low within public health. The study identifies seven priority entry points, or potential operational linkages between psychedelics and public health's core functions and essential services: 1) Discipline parametrization; 2) Harm reduction and health promotion; 3) Integration with Indigenous knowledge and communities; 3) Interdisciplinary synergies; 5) Theory development; 6) Ethics development; and 7) Preparation in a pre-legal context. These entry points justify the need for a new and coherent approach: Psychedelic Public Health is defined as the discipline that unites the practices and partnerships of public health with the collective healing properties of psychedelics to reduce harms and promote health, wellness, and equity at community and population levels.

CONCLUSION: There is a need for public health innovation and expertise to maximize psychedelic health benefits and reduce harms on an equity-based, population scale.