Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a pair of psychedelics bills that would create pilot programs allowing eligible patients to access novel treatments such as psilocybin, with the intent to gather information to inform best clinical practices and prepare for potential broader, regulated availability.
Members of the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery passed the legislation—H.2203 and H.4200 from Reps. Marjorie Decker (D) and James O’Day (D), respectively—on Wednesday. Both measures advanced in 9-3 votes.
Decker’s bill focuses on psilocybin therapy, requiring the Department of Public Health (DPH) to establish a pilot program where patients 21 and older with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and end-of-life anxiety could receive the psychedelic in a clinical setting at authorized mental health, hospice, veterans administration and other community services facilities.
University researchers would also be involved, tasked with supervising and analyzing the results of the innovative treatment initiative that would follow regulatory pathways approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Only psilocybin could be administered under the program—unlike the separate bill from O’Day that would broadly permit treatment with “psychedelic materials” defined by DPH—but its scale and intent are more expansive in other ways.
Specifically, DHS would be required to
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