![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-19.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
A psilocybin research bill cleared a Washington State House committee on Tuesday, passing on a bipartisan 23\u20138 vote after lawmakers rejected a Republican-led amendment to restore the measure\u2019s original provisions to broadly legalize facilitated use of the drug.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that is\u2014to me\u2014low-risk, something that we can try now,\u201d said Rep. Travis Couture (R), who introduced the amendment. \u201cI just don\u2019t feel that, the way we\u2019re going, we\u2019re moving fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
SB 5263<\/a> was originally introduced by Sens. Jesse Salomon (D) and Liz Lovelett (D) in January as a proposal to allow adults 21 and older to legally use psilocybin<\/a> under the care of trained, state-licensed facilitators. Nationally recognized medical institutions, the initial bill said, recognize psilocybin\u2019s potential to help treat a variety of medical conditions, \u201cincluding but not limited to addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, and end-of-life psychological distress.\u201d<\/p>\n In Senate committees, centrist Democrats subsequently gutted the bill<\/a>, removing legalization provisions and instead creating a task force and advisory group to study the issue<\/a> and provide recommendations. It passed the full Senate last month<\/a> as a research-only bill.<\/p>\n The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved<\/a> a new version of the bill that largely resembles the Senate-passed version with one major exception: a new clinical trial program, administered by the University of Washington (UW), that would be designed to provide legal psilocybin access to veterans and first responders. Details of the program, which would need to kick off by 2025, are still vague.<\/p>\n \u2014 Couture, himself a military veteran, said he appreciated the bill in its current form but feels there\u2019s an urgent need to provide access to safer alternatives than unregulated, illicit drugs currently being used by many veterans. \u201cEspecially as we wind down from what is a decades-long war, we have many veterans coming back, and mental illness and PTSD is a severe problem,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have higher rates of homeless veterans, we have higher rates of veterans that commit suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n The original plan to legalize psilocybin services \u201cput some sideboards around it,\u201d Couture noted. \u201cWe have someone facilitate it, and the experts we have at the Department of Health to do rulemaking around that. So I would encourage everyone to think very deeply about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Nicole Macri (D), who introduced the amendment to create the UW pilot program<\/a> last week in a separate committee, urged a no vote on Couture\u2019s proposal. She asked colleagues to \u201cinstead move in a more methodical and thoughtful way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re alone,\u201d she told Couture, in thinking Washington should move faster to allow legal access to psilocybin. \u201cBut I do think it\u2019s important that we take measured, thoughtful steps towards a fully regulated market. And there\u2019s more work to be done here.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside advocates for psilocybin reform have mixed feelings about the bill in its current form. On one hand, they acknowledge it\u2019s a symbolic step away from the criminal drug war. On the other, they worry the bill\u2019s commitment to merely researching<\/em> legalization\u2014which has already been undertaken at the state<\/a> and local<\/a> levels in Washington\u2014could set back more substantial reforms by years.<\/p>\n Kody Zalewski, co-director of the Psychedelic Medicine Alliance Washington<\/a> (PMAW), said even Macri\u2019s planned UW clinical trial could ultimately slow wider access to psilocybin in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pleased treatment is available, but the length of these trials may be a setback,\u201d Zalewski told Marijuana Moment in an email. \u201cLawmakers might avoid revisiting this until the final trial results are published which will delay implementation for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Macri did not immediately respond to Marijuana Moment\u2019s request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n PMAW had earlier encouraged lawmakers to consider an alternative pilot program that would have provided participants with grant money to receive legal psilocybin services in Oregon.<\/p>\n \u201cThis would be more expedient, less costly, and provide much broader access,\u201d Zalewski said. Moreover, because the bill\u2019s original framework mirrored Oregon\u2019s Initiative 109, the alternative program may have been a more representative pilot than the UW-administered clinical study.<\/p>\n Though some lawmakers on both the left and right might like to see the state move faster on psilocybin reform, they\u2019ve faced persistent opposition both from centrist Democrats and morally outraged Republicans. Representing the latter category at Tuesday\u2019s committee hearing was Rep. Mary Dye (R), who warned that the bill was \u201ccode for something more than just that therapeutic use.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe concern I have for this state in particular is the psychedelics are used widely in our rave concerts,\u201d she said. \u201cThese concerts are reminiscent of the \u201960s and \u201970s, and that counterculture subculture of acceptability of those psychedelic experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf this is a therapeutic, there\u2019s no reason why the therapeutic should not go through the FDA process to become a pharmaceutical that\u2019s administered in a clinical setting with a trained doctor,\u201d Dye said.<\/p>\n To that point the bill in its current form says the UW clinical pilot program would need to \u201coffer psilocybin therapy services through pathways approved by the federal food and drug administration [FDA].\u201d<\/p>\n Lawmakers heard earlier this year from Anthony Back, a Seattle doctor and professor of medicine at UW who is currently leading a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for doctors and nurses with depression and burnout related to their frontline work on the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously it would be lovely if we could wait until incredibly definitive results were in from everything,\u201d Back testified to a Senate committee. \u201cBut what I can share is that what I have seen so far are some remarkable responses for clinicians who were suffering in a way that completely blocked their ability to do the work they love.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u00a0warned lawmakers that denying adults access to legal psilocybin carries its own set of health and safety risks.<\/p>\n \u201cI have already heard accounts of desperate clinicians who are seeking underground care,\u201d he said, \u201cincluding a nurse who was sexually assaulted by an underground provider who was unregulated, unlicensed, unaccountable.\u201d<\/p>\n A number of other drug policy bills are advancing through Washington\u2019s legislature this session, including legislation that would enable state-licensed businesses to engage in interstate cannabis commerce<\/a> once federal officials allow it.<\/p>\n Another measure, which has already passed both houses of the legislature, albeit in slightly different forms, would prohibit employers from discriminating against job applicants who used or tested positive for marijuana before being hired<\/a>. The protection would not apply to workers once employed.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also again considered but did not enact a proposal that would have legalized home cultivation of cannabis by adults<\/a> for personal use. Currently the act is a felony in the state.<\/p>\n New Biden Proclamation Highlights Marijuana Criminalization\u2019s Role In Blocking Employment And Education<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Washington Psilocybin Research Bill Heads To House Floor After Panel Rejects GOP Push To Restore Legal Use<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A psilocybin research bill cleared a Washington State House committee on Tuesday, passing on a bipartisan 23\u20138 vote after lawmakers rejected a Republican-led amendment to restore the measure\u2019s original provisions to broadly legalize facilitated use of the drug. \u201cThis is something that is\u2014to me\u2014low-risk, something that we can try now,\u201dContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":63467,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63468,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63466\/revisions\/63468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMarijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills<\/a> in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters<\/a> pledging at least $25\/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don\u2019t miss any developments.<\/strong>
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-18.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a>
\nLearn more about our marijuana bill tracker<\/a> and become a supporter on Patreon<\/a> to get access.
\n\u2014<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\n
\nRead More: Washington Psilocybin Research Bill Heads To House Floor After Panel Rejects GOP Push To Restore Legal Use<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"