Hawaii House Panel Advances Bill To Create Psychedelics Task Force That Has Already Passed Senate

A Hawaii House committee has approved a Senate-passed bill that would create a psychedelics task force responsible for studying and making policy recommendations on providing access to breakthrough therapies such as psilocybin and MDMA.

The House Health Committee advanced the legislation from Sen. Chris Lee (D), with new amendments, in a 9-0 vote on Friday. The measure, which had cleared the Senate in a unanimous vote of 24-0 earlier this month, next heads to the House Finance Committee before potentially going to the floor.

The bill would create a Mental Health Emerging Therapies Task Force that would be tasked with spending two years reviewing the current scientific literature, supporting additional clinical research and “developing policy recommendations for safe, ethical, and culturally-informed implementation” of a psychedelics therapy program.

“The legislature finds that addressing the mental health crisis affecting the residents of the State, particularly among veterans, first responders, and trauma survivors, is urgent,” the bill, SB 3199, states. “Suicide continues to be a leading cause of preventable death, and the State must explore all safe and effective treatment options supported by scientific evidence.”

Noting that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already designated psilocybin and MDMA as breakthrough therapies in the treatment of serious mental health conditions, which could lend to future rescheduling under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the Hawaii legislation says the state “must proactively prepare public health, clinical, and research systems for safe and equitable implementation.”

The state Department of Health said in testimony to the House committee that it supports the bill, noting that in light of FDA’s action on psychedelics, “it is prudent for Hawaii to evaluate research readiness, regulatory implications, workforce development, and culturally informed implementation pathways” in advance of any federal rescheduling of the substances.

The governor’s Office of Wellness and Resilience said the bill “resents an important opportunity to begin to prepare a planful pathway for individuals in need of access to potentially life-saving treatments for trauma and other longstanding mental health challenges.”

“A growing body of research demonstrates that breakthrough therapies (such as MDMA and psilocybin-assisted therapies) show significant efficacy and positive clinical outcomes in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, end-of-life anxiety in terminally ill patients, eating disorders, treatment-resistant depression, and additional conditions,” it said.

Members of the task force would have to include representatives of the state Department of Health (DOH), the attorney general’s office, the Office of Wellness and Resilience (OWR), the University of Hawaii’s medical school and more.

As drafted, DOH would have overseen the task force, but the latest committee amendment makes the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the University of Hawaii the responsible entity, and designates JABSOM’s appointee as chair of the panel.

The House committee additionally adopted amendments suggested by Department of Law Enforcement, to state that its Narcotics Enforcement Division—and not the Board of Pharmacy—would be responsible for changing state scheduling of psychedelics following any federal reclassification, and changing deadline for such action from 90 days to 30 days.

Members also moved to note in the bill report that the State Health Planning & Development Agency has expressed concerns that psychedelics are illegal under federal law and that task force should proceed cautiously.

Finally, the panel made technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style.

If enacted, it appears the bill would build upon prior work conducted by a separate psychedelics task force that convened for the first time in 2023, with a similar goal of exploring pathways for therapeutic access into FDA-approved breakthrough drugs like psilocybin.

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Meanwhile, although Hawaii senators recently approved a bill to legalize low-dose and low-potency marijuana, the legislation didn’t advance through required steps before a key deadline, and so is dead for the year.

A separate marijuana legalization bill that contained provisions making the reform contingent on changes to federal law or the state Constitution, SB 2421, was deferred for action. Both Senate and House panels additionally deferred action on a measure to allow for the sale of certain hemp-derived cannabinoid products.

Those actions comes after key House lawmakers signaled that cannabis legalization proposals would not be advancing in the 2026 session, citing a lack of sufficient support in their chamber.

Earlier this month, a Hawaii Senate committee separately passed legislation to allow patients to immediately access medical cannabis once their registrations are submitted, instead of having to wait until their cards are delivered as is the case under current law.

Image courtesy of CostaPPR.

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