A House committee in Alaska held a hearing Thursday on a bill to create a state task force that would study how to license and regulate psychedelic-assisted therapy—a plan supporters say will help prepare the state for the forthcoming federal approval of substances such as MDMA and psilocybin.
At the meeting of the House State Affairs Committee, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jennie Armstrong (D) told members that given federal Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) likely sign-off on psychedelic-assisted therapy, it’s important that Alaska be prepared at the state level.
“The state has to do this work anyway,” she said. “We think it’s better to have it be done by a group of very passionate volunteers from across the state, from different groups, and be prepared, so that when this medicine is medicalized, we don’t have folks showing up to their doctor saying, ‘I want this,’ and they go, ‘Oh, sorry, the state hasn’t figured out licensing yet!’”
Armstrong emphasized that the Mental Health & Psychedelic Medicine Task Force “will not consider or take a position on the medicalization, decriminalization, or legalization of psychedelic medicines.”
“The purpose is for this task force,” she said, “to create a set of policy recommendations
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