Louisiana senators have approved a bill to create a psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program, using opioid settlement dollars to fund clinical trials aimed at developing alternative treatments such as psilocybin and ibogaine.
The legislation from Sen. Patrick McMath (R) passed the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, with amendments, on Wednesday. The sponsor said he filed the measure after hearing from military veterans who “opened my eyes to this world” of psychedelics therapy that they received, helping him to realize “it was a growing movement.”
The psychedelics program would be overseen by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), which would be responsible for facilitating clinical trials involving substances that hold therapeutic potential. The bill says that eligible participants would include people with opioid use disorders, co-occurring substance use disorders and treatment-resistant neurological or mental health conditions.
Any studies would need to go though the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigational drug approval process. Researchers would also need to be permitted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to conduct trials involving the Schedule I controlled substances.
Patients participating in the studies would need to go through mental and physical health screening, and researchers would also be required to develop processes that ensure
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