An Alaska Senate committee on Friday advanced a bill that would create a task force to study how to license and regulate psychedelic-assisted therapy in anticipation of eventual federal legalization of substances like MDMA and psilocybin.
Before taking action on the bill, which the panel first considered earlier this month, members of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee adopted a substitute from its sponsor, Sen. Forrest Dunbar (D). The committee then moved the amended bill out of committee “with individual recommendations” and a new fiscal note that reduced the estimated cost of the task force to zero.
The changes bring the Senate bill, SB 166, into closer alignment with its companion bill in the House, HB 228, which also saw changes in committee last week.
Despite the changes, Dunbar said at Friday’s Senate committee hearing, “the overriding purpose of the task force is still the same: We are preparing Alaska—hopefully preparing—for what we see as the very likely legalization, in the medical context, of certain of these substances.”
Both MDMA and psilocybin have been granted breakthrough therapy status by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and recent clinical trials have MDMA on pace for possible FDA approval later this year.
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