House Appropriations Committee leadership has taken a special interest in psychedelics research this year as they’ve crafted spending bills and reports to fund various federal agencies. And one of the latest examples of that interest comes from a manager’s amendment to legislation covering the Department of Health and Human Services.
The newly added report language contains two sections addressing the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. One broadly encourages research into the substances as potential treatment options for post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression, while the other talks about psychedelics as a possible tool to combat conditions that commonly afflict military veterans.
The measures, adopted by the committee on Thursday, build on other existing drug policy reform provisions of the appropriations bill and report. However, there’s also a new bill section that advocates take issue with to prohibit the use of federal funds to procure or distribute “pipes or similar cylindrical objects” used to consume Schedule I drugs. It’s viewed a discriminatory iteration of drug war politics that reared its head earlier this year over the issue of funding the inclusion of so-called crack pipes in harm reduction kits.
But the psychedelics language is a positive signal from the committee as far
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