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Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a bill to establish a pilot program for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics<\/a>. And two committees have separately held hearings to discuss additional psilocybin-related measures.<\/p>\n Less than two weeks after advancing out of the legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Hearing, the pilot program legislation from Sen. Cindy Friedman (D) moved through the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on Tuesday with a \u201cdo pass\u201d recommendation.<\/p>\n The bill, S.1400, is light on specifics, leaving many details of the pilot program up to regulators with the Department of Public Health (DPH). But in general, it calls for a \u201cpilot program to allow for the monitored mental health care of clinically appropriate patients using psychedelic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n It would involve the \u201con-site administration by a multi-disciplinary care team in a supervised licensed mental health clinic setting.\u201d<\/p>\n DPH could only issue licenses for up to three health facilities to administer and study the psychedelics in the state. They would be tasked with \u201cestablishing the best and safest clinical practices for psychedelic mental health treatment programs in the commonwealth and for the purposes of collecting patient outcomes data regarding the benefits of psychedelic pharmacotherapy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEligible pilot program organizations must exclusively focus operations and treatment on mental health and cannot be subsidiaries, affiliates or members of cannabis industry organizations, psychedelic molecule development companies or pharmaceutical companies,\u201d the\u00a0bill<\/a>\u00a0text states.<\/p>\n The department would be required to develop rules for the program, including setting standards for people to apply to participate, patient assessments and ongoing monitoring, clinical staffing and the administration of psychedelic medicines.<\/p>\n \u201cAll pilot program participant organizations must track patient care outcomes data related to the identification, diagnosis and psychedelic treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder,\u201d it says. \u201cThese data sets must be shared with the department to assist in the refinement of best clinical protocols and final regulatory frameworks for the safe use of psychedelic material in Massachusetts.\u201d<\/p>\n Jamie Morey, executive director and co-founder of the advocacy group Mass Healing said the bill\u2019s advancement \u201cbrings the promise of healing one step closer for Massachusetts residents suffering from trauma, depression, and other treatment-resistant conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe thank Senator Friedman and the committee for seeing the desperate need for new treatment options to help reduce deaths of despair and taking bold action to put Massachusetts at the forefront of a mental health revolution that will save countless lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The bill, as well as a separate measure to provide a more limited pilot program for psilocybin therapy alone, will also be the focus of a hearing on November 10 before the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery.<\/p>\n At separate hearings on Monday, lawmakers considered a psilocybin pilot program proposal from Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D), as well as a broader measure to legalize and regulate psilocybin for adults that\u2019s being sponsored by Rep. Patrick Kearney (D).<\/p>\n Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue took up<\/a> the legalization measure<\/a>, while the Joint Committee on Public Health discussed<\/a> the psilocybin pilot program proposal<\/a>. Members in both panels took testimony from experts about the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic and ramifications of criminalization, but did not act on the bills.<\/p>\n Graham Moore, educational director for Mass Healing, told the revenue panel that \u201cblanket prohibition can actually cause more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe largest preventable cause of death in this state is tobacco, and psilocybin has been shown to help people break that addiction among many other improvements to behavioral health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Joe McKay of Clusterbusters told lawmakers about how using psilocybin has helped to manage cluster headache condition he began experiencing after 9\/11, when he was one of many firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center attack in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cI would take a low dose a few times a year to keep the attacks away. And during one experience, I had this 10,000-foot view of my life and I realized how I had changed since 9\/11 and that I was living with PTSD. I also realized that I was taking the painkillers to numb the emotional pain and not the physical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI sought out help from an underground therapist, and today I no longer drink alcohol and I have not taken a painkiller since,\u201d McKay said. \u201cAnd I can honestly say that psilocybin healed me, both physically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n While multiple cities across Massachusetts have enacted local psychedelics decriminalization initiatives, voters rejected a statewide ballot measure last year that would have legalized substances such as psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT<\/a>\u00a0for adults.<\/p>\n Ahead of that vote, the governor signed a military veterans-focused bill that includes provisions to create a psychedelics working group<\/a>\u00a0to study and make recommendations about the potential therapeutic benefits of substances like psilocybin and MDMA.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on the Judiciary in July held a hearing on four of 12 psychedelics-related bills<\/a>\u00a0that were filed for this session, with the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society (MPS) endorsing one that would decriminalize certain entheogenic substances.<\/p>\n \u2014 Separately in Massachusetts, the state attorney general recently certified and prepared summaries for dozens of proposed 2026 ballot initiatives\u2014including a pair that would roll back adult-use marijuana legalization in the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n Regulators are also working to finalize rules to\u00a0allow for a new cannabis consumption lounge license type<\/a>, which they hope to complete soon.<\/p>\n The legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy last month approved bills to\u00a0provide employment protections for marijuana consumers and expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a>, in part by adding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and opioid use disorder to the list of qualifying conditions.<\/p>\n State lawmakers have also been considering\u00a0setting tighter restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived products<\/a>\u00a0and a plan to\u00a0allow individual entities to control a larger number of cannabis establishments<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype<\/a> and Apollo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Massachusetts Lawmakers Advance Psychedelics Pilot Program Bill As Committees Weigh Additional Psilocybin Measures<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a bill to establish a pilot program for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics. And two committees have separately held hearings to discuss additional psilocybin-related measures. Less than two weeks after advancing out of the legislature\u2019s Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery Hearing,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83594,"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\/83593"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83595,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83593\/revisions\/83595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Massachusetts Lawmakers Advance Psychedelics Pilot Program Bill As Committees Weigh Additional Psilocybin Measures<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"