A new proposal from an Atlanta City Council member would direct municipal officials to explore the pros and cons of adding coverage for psilocybin and ketamine as mental health treatments to the city\u2019s healthcare plan for firefighters, police and other government workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditional treatments for mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and others have shown limited effectiveness for some individuals, leading to a need for exploring alternative therapeutic options,\u201d the legislation, which is currently being sponsored by 11 of the Council\u2019s 16 members, states. \u201cRecent research has demonstrated the potential efficacy of alternative therapies such as ketamine-assisted therapy and psilocybin-assisted therapy in treating various mental health conditions, offering promising results where other treatments have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resolution\u2019s lead sponsor, Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, has said city workers deserve access to a broad range of mental health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be offering our employees\u2014and especially our first responders, who are expected to be superhuman\u2014the same amount of grace and providing them with a tool set to essentially overcome this issue,\u201d The lawmaker recently told Axios<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bakhtiari said the impetus for including the drugs on public employees\u2019 health plans was meeting a West Virginia police officer who witnessed a fellow officer die of suicide and later used ketamine to treat his PTSD. The lawmaker said they\u2019re not aware of any other city governments that have looked into covering psilocybin or ketamine treatment.<\/p>\n The resolution<\/a> from Bakhtiari would request the Atlanta\u2019s human resources department to \u201cexplore the feasibility of adding coverage for ketamine therapy, psilocybin therapy, and other alternative therapies for mental illness in the City\u2019s employee benefits contract during its next round of negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s HR department would further be asked to \u201cconduct a thorough review of the scientific evidence, safety considerations, regulatory landscape, liability, cost implications, and applicability based upon one\u2019s job classification to incorporate such alternative therapies as part of the employee\u2019s benefits package.\u201d<\/p>\n Findings of the review would be due to the City Council by December 10 of this year.<\/p>\n Nearly two years ago, Atlanta leaders considered a separate measure Bakhtiari filed to locally decriminalize a broad range of psychedelics<\/a>\u2014including plants, fungi, spores and other botanical compounds\u2014though it did not ultimately become law.<\/p>\n That same year, a Georgia House committee met at the state level to separately talk about the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a> like psilocybin to treat serious mental health conditions that commonly afflict military veterans.<\/p>\n As for workplace coverage of substances like psilocybin and ketamine, it\u2019s a growing area of interest among employers and healthcare companies.<\/p>\n The nonprofit Enthea, which calls itself \u201cthe first and only licensed provider of psychedelic health plans,\u201d announced last year that it would cover both ketamine treatment nationwide<\/a> and psilocybin in states where it\u2019s permitted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Enthea previously worked with soap company Dr. Bronner\u2019s to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy to workers through their employee health plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had our eye on the potential benefits of psilocybin therapy since we founded our company,\u201d Dan Rome, Enthea\u2019s co-founder and chief medical officer, said late last year. \u201cWe are very encouraged by published results as well as what we hear from practicing therapists, and are confident that this brings an important new option for combating mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n Enthea has previously said that its services will expand further to include therapies with other substances, such as MDMA, \u201cas they are approved.\u201d<\/p>\n At the federal level, meanwhile, a top U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official said earlier this month that there\u2019s an \u201cunstoppable narrative\u201d in support of advancing psychedelic medicine<\/a>, with a combination of compelling personal stories of recovery and robust clinical data from studies he\u2019s hoping to expand upon. He also said bipartisan acceptance of psychedelics has \u201csurpassed\u201d that of marijuana in Congress.<\/p>\n The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently considering a new drug application for MDMA-assisted therapy<\/a> for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The review has been granted priority status, with a public hearing scheduled for next month.<\/p>\n While both MDMA and psilocybin remain Schedule I controlled substances, both have also been granted \u201cbreakthrough therapy\u201d status by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<\/p>\n The House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee also passed a bill at the beginning of the month that would require VA to notify Congress if any psychedelics are added to its formulary<\/a>\u00a0of covered prescription drugs.<\/p>\n President Joe Biden also signed into law a bipartisan measure to provide funding to the Department of Defense (DOD) to\u00a0conduct clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics for active duty military members<\/a>. That was enacted under the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).<\/p>\n In March, congressional appropriations leaders also unveiled a spending package that\u00a0contains language providing $10 million to facilitate the psychedelics studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n In January, VA separately issued a request for applications to conduct in-depth research on\u00a0the use of psychedelics to treat PTSD and depression<\/a>. And in October, VA launched a new podcast about the future of veteran health care, and the first episode of the series focuses on the healing potential of psychedelics<\/a>.<\/p>\n FDA officials also recently joined scientists at a public meeting on\u00a0next steps for conducting research to develop psychedelic medicines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump Pledges To Free Silk Road Drug Market Operator Russ Ulbricht, Despite Calling For Execution Of Drug Sellers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Wikimedia\/Workman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Atlanta Could Add Psilocybin And Ketamine To City Workers\u2019 Healthcare Plans Under Pending Resolution<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new proposal from an Atlanta City Council member would direct municipal officials to explore the pros and cons of adding coverage for psilocybin and ketamine as mental health treatments to the city\u2019s healthcare plan for firefighters, police and other government workers. \u201cTraditional treatments for mental illnesses such as depression,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"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\/75677"}],"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=75677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75678,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75677\/revisions\/75678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Atlanta Could Add Psilocybin And Ketamine To City Workers\u2019 Healthcare Plans Under Pending Resolution<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"