Another North Carolina Senate Committee Approves Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill

Federal health officials should explore the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for military veterans suffering from a variety of mental illnesses, a House committee says in a new report attached to spending legislation.

The report for the Department of Labor, Health and Welfare, Education and Allied Agencies (LaborH) includes new wording stating that the epidemic of veteran suicides requires an assessment of alternative treatment options, including psychedelics.

“There have been many recent studies and clinical trials showing the benefits of alternative therapies, including psychedelics, for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder, particularly in veterans,” it said. “Given the growing interest in this area, the committee encourages [the National Institutes on Health] and other relevant federal agencies to conduct and, if necessary, expand research to evaluate the effectiveness of psychedelic therapies in the treatment of PTSD, major depressive disorder, and other serious mental illnesses. “

While Congress continues to lag behind in implementing drug policy reforms such as the legalization of marijuana, the language of the report reflects a growing awareness that certain currently illicit substances have medicinal potential that is largely under-researched. There is also a reform of the psychedelics law in the midst of a national movement – and as universities are increasingly prioritizing research into the substances.

Melissa Lavasani, co-founder of the Plant Medicine Coalition (PMC), told Marijuana Moment that the group had spent the past six months “educating and” encouraging “members on the hill about psychedelics and their therapeutic potential by admitting them this research language in the middle report.

“While we are disappointed that the committee did not specifically fund psychedelic research, we are not discouraged. We see this as a critical first step in advancing and expanding the research potential of these drugs, ”she said. “This committee is reporting voice signals to the NIH and other federal agencies that Congress is providing support for expanding federal psychedelic research.”

“The Plant Medicine Coalition will continue to work with members of the House and Senate and the Biden government to advance this dialogue and other policies that enable safe and equitable access to psychedelics,” Lavasani said.

In June, a senior science policy advisor to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) discussed the “compulsory” research on psychedelics and the importance of federal involvement when local politics change, regardless of the illegality of these substances under federal law.

In a Senate hearing in May, NIH Director Francis Collins touted the therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA, as well as criticizing ongoing federal restrictions stifling marijuana research.

As part of the approval process for this session, numerous drug policy reform provisions were incorporated into the legal text and accompanying reports – including measures to protect state medical cannabis laws from federal interference, to protect banks that work with marijuana companies, and to encourage government agencies to reconsider policies that fire workers, including preventing immigrants from being deported for cannabis.

For LaborH, for example, there is a passage calling on the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support expanded marijuana studies.

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It is also mandated that NIH work with federal agencies to expand access for researchers to get marijuana and other List I drugs that may be difficult to access due to their restricted status under federal law.

Proponents, however, were disappointed to see another driver from the 1990s re-enrolled in LaborH law, which largely prevents agencies from promoting the legalization of List I substances like marijuana. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) MP tried to get this language removed in 2019, arguing that it hinders research on psychedelics, but many Democrats joined Republicans and opposed her amendment.

Psychedelics reform is advancing at a rapid pace at the state and local levels.

California psychedelics activists recently petitioned for the 2022 vote to make the state the first in the nation to legalize psilocybin mushrooms for all uses, for example.

This proposal would go beyond the psilocybin measure approved by Oregon voters last year that made therapeutic use legal in a clinically monitored setting.

Meanwhile, Northampton, Massachusetts City Council passed a resolution in April to repeal the enforcement of laws against the possession, use, and distribution of a wide range of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ayahuasca. It is the third city in the state, after Somerville and Cambridge, to drive policy change.

These are some of the latest iterations of a national psychedelics reform movement that has spread since Denver was the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms in 2019.

In addition to the Massachusetts cities, four others – Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, and Washington, DC – have decriminalized possession of plant and mushroom-based psychedelic substances.

A councilor from Arcata, California, announced earlier this month that it would support a move to decriminalize psychedelics.

The Connecticut governor recently signed law requiring the state to conduct a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.

Texas also recently passed bill requiring the state to study the medical benefits of psychedelics for military veterans.

A New York lawmaker tabled a bill last month that would oblige the state to create an institute to conduct similar research into the medical value of psychedelics.

In Oakland, the first city where a city council voted to make the criminalization of entheogenic substances largely a priority, lawmakers passed a follow-up resolution in December calling for the policy change to be passed nationwide and for local jurisdictions to allow healing ceremonies to allow where people might use psychedelics.

After Ann Arbor legislators passed a decriminalization resolution last year, a district attorney recently announced that his office would not bring charges of possession of entheogenic plants and mushrooms “regardless of the amount in dispute.”

Aspen, Colorado City Council met in May to discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances. However, members said that passing a reform would be better handled at the federal level, while entheogens would be tightly controlled by the federal government.

Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic calling on the group to investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction.

Read the full text of psychedelic language in the expense accounts report below:

Psychedelic Treatments. — Despite the Department of Veterans Affairs’s latest 2020 National Veterans Suicide Prevention Report, which showed that the veteran suicide rate did not increase significantly from 2017 to 2018, the committee is concerned that the average continues to exceed 17 veterans Committing suicide every day, a number that has remained constant over the past decade. There have been many recent studies and clinical trials showing the beneficial effects of alternative therapies, including psychedelics, on treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder, especially in experienced participants. Given the growing interest in this area, the Committee encourages the NIH and other relevant federal agencies to conduct and, if necessary, expand research to evaluate the effectiveness of psychedelic therapies in the treatment of PTSD, major depressive disorder, and other major mental illnesses.

GOP law aims to block marijuana purchases by low-income individuals on federal aid

Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.

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