Politics
Missouri Lawmakers Strip $10 Million In Psilocybin Research Funding From Budget Bill
A Missouri Senate committee on Wednesday stripped a proposal from a House-passed budget bill that would have funneled $10 million in state opioid settlement money to research psilocybin.
An earlier version of the Republican-led proposal would have instead put the money toward the study of ibogaine as a treatment for opioid use disorder, but a House floor amendment earlier this month switched the focus to psilocybin. After the latest changes in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the budget would allocate no money to psychedelics research of any kind.
Separate Missouri legislation that would legalize the use of medical psilocybin by military veterans and fund future studies exploring the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic, however, is still advancing through the House and Senate.
Money for the budget bill’s now-removed psychedelic research provisions would have come from state opioid settlement funds, the result of multiple lawsuits filed against the opioid industry and peripheral businesses.
In the coming decades, Missouri is set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid-related settlement funds. Psychedelic medicine proponents have been working to encourage states to use those millions to fund further research into ibogaine and other entheogens.
A similar plan to use $42 million from Kentucky’s opioid settlement fund for ibogaine research, for instance, ultimately fell through last year after the state’s new attorney general replaced then-Kentucky Opioid Commission Chairman Bryan Hubbard, who was spearheading the ibogaine initiative, with a former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official. Hubbard and others have since shifted attention to other states, including Missouri and Ohio.
The new changes to the Missouri budget bill, HB 2010, sponsored by Rep. Cody Smith (R), were made Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The earlier short-lived addition of ibogaine, meanwhile, was the doing of Rep. Chad Perkins (R), a longtime police officer.
Smith, who also brought the subsequent amendment that replaced ibogaine with psilocybin, previously explained that the ibogaine proposal was nixed as the result of a conversation he had with the state Department of Mental Health.
“They had concerns about the ibogaine research they had read, and there are concerns about the dangers involved in that research,” Smith said. “However, they are interested in the psilocybin piece. And we’ve seen many other states use their opioid settlement funds to that end.”
At the time, Perkins said he was “not disappointed” with the change.
“I believe that bringing more exposure to the benefits of psychedelics has been an ancillary effect of the pursuit of this budget item,” he told Marijuana Moment. “This issue will hopefully raise the profile of psychedelics and provide a foundation on which we can base future policy decisions.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the psilocybin provision was taken out by the Senate committee, as they did not discuss the changes in detail at Wednesday’s hearing.
Neither Smith nor Perkins responded immediately to emails from Marijuana Moment about the removal of the psilocybin provision by the Senate panel.
Eapen Thampy, a lobbyist and founder of the group Psychedelic Missouri, said the brief additions of psychedelic research provisions to the state budget nevertheless marked progress.
“Psychedelic advocates have achieved significant accomplishments this year, getting psilocybin legislation through committees in the Missouri House and Senate, and getting the House to approve a groundbreaking budget allocation for clinical research,” he told Marijuana Moment in a statement. “We look forward to building the momentum it will take to get these proposals across the finish line this campaign season.”
It’s not yet clear whether the psychedelic research provision might be reinserted in a bicameral conference committee, Thampy said.
Lawmakers in a growing number of other states have also considered psychedelics legislation this session, with many focusing on psilocybin.
For example, the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates have both passed legislation to create a psychedelics task force responsible for studying possible regulatory frameworks for therapeutic access to substances such as psilocybin, mescaline and DMT, sending the proposal to Gov Wes Moore (D). It would be charged specifically with ensuring “broad, equitable and affordable access to psychedelic substances” in the state.
Vermont’s Senate also recently passed a measure that would establish a working group to study whether and how to allow therapeutic access to psychedelics in the state. If the bill is enacted, a report from the working group would be due to the legislature in November with recommendations on how to regulate the substances.
The Indiana governor recently signed a bill that includes provisions to fund clinical research trials into psilocybin.
Utah’s governor allowed a bill to authorize a pilot program for hospitals to administer psilocybin and MDMA as an alternative treatment option to become law without his signature.
Maine lawmakers sent the governor legislation to establish a commission tasked with studying and making recommendations on regulating access to psychedelic services.
An Arizona House panel also approved a Senate-passed bill to legalize psilocybin service centers where people could receive the psychedelic in a medically supervised setting.
A Connecticut joint legislative panel approved a bill to decriminalize possession of psilocybin.
A bipartisan bill to legalize psychedelic service centers in California has cleared two Senate committees.
The governor of New Mexico has endorsed a newly enacted resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.
Alaska lawmakers are considering legislation to create a task for to study how to regulate access to psychedelics following federal approval.
An Illinois committee also recently held a hearing to discuss a bill to legalize psilocybin and allow regulated access at service centers in the state where adults could use the psychedelic in a supervised setting—with plans to expand the program to include mescaline, ibogaine and DMT.
Lawmakers in Hawaii are also considering a bill that would provide some legal protections to patients engaging in psilocybin-assisted therapy with a medical professional’s approval.
New York lawmakers also said that a bill to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy in that state has a “real chance” of passing this year.
A Nevada joint legislative committee held a hearing with expert and public testimony on the therapeutic potential of substances like psilocybin in January. Law enforcement representatives also shared their concerns around legalization—but there was notable acknowledgement that some reforms should be enacted, including possible rescheduling.
The governor of Massachusetts recently promoted the testimony of activists who spoke in favor of her veterans-focused bill that would, in part, create a psychedelics work group to study the therapeutic potential of substances such as psilocybin. Last month a Massachusetts joint legislative committee held a hearing to discuss an initiative that would legalize psychedelics that may appear on the November ballot if lawmakers decline to independently enact it first.
As for ibogaine, a Stanford University study published earlier this year found that military combat veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) saw “dramatic” and “life-changing” improvements in their symptoms and cognitive functioning immediately after receiving treatment with the substance. In response to the increased demand for research, DEA has proposed a dramatic escalation in the production quota for ibogaine and other psychedelic compounds in 2024.
Currently, there are no psychedelic drugs that are federally approved to prescribe as medicine. But that could soon change, as FDA recently agreed to review a new drug application for MDMA-assisted therapy on an expedited basis.
At the start of this year, VA separately issued a request for applications to conduct in-depth research on the use of psychedelics to treat PTSD and depression.
In October, the agency also 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.
FDA also recently joined scientists at a public meeting on next steps for conducting research to develop psychedelic medicines. That came months after the agency issued historic draft guidance on psychedelics studies, providing scientists with a framework to carry out research that could lead to the development of novel medicines.
Meanwhile in Congress last week, a House panel approved GOP-led bill that would instruct the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to notify Congress if any psychedelics are added to its formulary of covered prescription drugs.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.
