Tag: mental health

New Mexico Governor Signs Bill To Create Psilocybin Therapy Program, Legalizing Medical Use Of The Psychedelic

New Mexico’s governor has signed a bill into law to establish a therapeutic psilocybin program in the state.

Weeks after the proposal from Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) advanced through the legislature, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) gave it final approval on Monday.

The Medical Psilocybin Act will allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to access the psychedelic and use it under the guidance of a licensed healthcare provider.

The measure says the purpose “is to allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions,” including major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders and end-of-life care. The state Department of Health would be able to approve additional conditions.

Under the newly signed legislation, psilocybin therapy will consist of a preparation session, an administration session and a follow-up integration session.

The state health department will be responsible for establishing guidelines around training for clinicians and producers, including dosage, approved settings for administration, production and storage protocols and other best practices. State officials will also license producers to grow mushrooms and process psilocybin.

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Nevada Lawmakers Discuss Plan To Create Psychedelic Therapy Pilot Program

A Nevada bill that would create a psychedelic therapy pilot program for military veterans and first responders had its first committee hearing on Wednesday. Lawmakers heard testimony from reform advocates, veterans and their families and members of a state Psychedelic Medicines Working Group, which late last year called on lawmakers to establish a system for regulated access.

The legislation, AB 378, was filed March 10 by Assemblymember Max Carter (D) and 18 other cosponsors. Under the proposal, the state would establish an Alternative Therapy Pilot Program under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The program would allow the medically supervised use of psychedelics including psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline, specifically among military veterans and first responders with certain mental health conditions.

While the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services didn’t act on the legislation at Wednesday’s hearing, they took testimony and asked questions of some speakers.

Carter, speaking to the panel, said that psychedelic therapy—involving ketamine, which is not part of the current bill—helped him overcome “profound, deep grief, treatment-resistant depression” and complex post-traumatic stress disorder after the traumatic death of his wife.

He explained that the pilot program would focus on first responders and military veterans because “those are demographics that everybody can identify with, but more importantly, they’re ones with accelerated—or exacerbated—suicide rates.”

“When we come back here in two years,” Carter told colleagues, “my belief is this will be mainstream therapy.”

Notably, no members of the public at Wednesday’s hearing spoke in opposition to the proposal, nor did any offer neutral comments.

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Depression and Anxiety Affect Millions of People. For Big Pharma, It’s a Big Profit Opportunity

According to the World Health Organization, mental health conditions are one of the biggest health challenges globally, affecting over 450 million people worldwide.

Depression and anxiety are the most common, impacting nearly 30% of adolescents worldwide and ranking as the 13th and 24th leading causes of disability respectively.

In today’s medical system, antidepressants are still the primary treatment for depression and anxiety, making up 75% of all prescriptions for these conditions.

While antidepressant dispensing was already on the rise, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about an even greater increase. Between January 2016 and December 2022, research shows a 66.3% increase in monthly antidepressant dispensing rates.

Today, despite growing concerns about their safety, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) — such as Citalopram, Fluoxetine, Sertraline and Mirtazapine — continue to be widely prescribed across all age groups.

This raises important questions about their long-term impact and whether the medical model that prioritizes medication is truly the best approach.

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Texas Senator Files Bill To Support Research On Psychedelic Therapy For PTSD And Depression

A Texas senator has introduced a bill to require studies on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in the treatment of serious mental health conditions.

Sen. César Blanco (D) filed the legislation on Friday. It aims to facilitate the studies—which would be conducted by medical schools at two Texas universities—to better understand the possible benefits of psychedelics for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

Researchers at Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin would be tasked with researching the existing scientific literature around psychedelics, actions made by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and potential strategies to provide access to the novel medicines.

The study would involve an evaluation of “patient access to current treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other co-occurring conditions and recommend legislative or other actions necessary to ensure patient access to psychedelic therapies following approval” by FDA, “including considerations of provider availability, affordability, accessibility, training and licensure, and other regulatory requirements.”

Substances within the scope of the review include psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine, according to the bill’s text.

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New Mexico Senate Passes Bill To Create Psilocybin Therapy Program

The New Mexico Senate has passed a bill to establish a therapeutic psilocybin program in the state.

After clearing three separate committees over the past month, the legislation from Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) was approved by the full chamber in a 33-4 vote on Wednesday, sending it to the House of Representatives.

If enacted, the Medical Psilocybin Act would allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to access the psychedelic and use it under the guidance of a licensed healthcare provider.

“I have come to know and become friends with combat veterans, physicians, providers and even practitioners who serve patients dealing with end-of-life anxiety,” Steinborn said on the floor. “This bill seeks to create a carefully calculated, thoughtful and patient program that would be developed by the Department of Health…to allow patients in a medical setting.”

“This is very different from cannabis. It could only be administered in a medical setting by licensed providers,” he said. “Sometimes it can be as effective as one treatment, and people can have long-term relief from that that they’re dealing with.”

The sponsor added that “we recognize the important need of continuing to do research, so we have the best program here, where the Department of Health is making the best available science decisions on medical setting, dosage, et cetera.”

Sen. Jay Block (R), a veteran himself, said that while he was initially “adamantly opposed” to the proposed reform, he has come to better understand the issue as a “right to try” policy for those with serious mental health conditions. He teared up during the Senate debate, recognizing veterans and others who he’s since learned benefitted from the psychedelic.

An amendment from Sen. Katy Huhigg (D) was adopted on the floor to clarify that the use of federally approved psilocybin would be allowed under the state law, but that such products would not be further regulated by the state.

The amendment would also remove a requirement that the department develop “qualifying conditions” for producers and clinicians, add a health care provider to the advisory board that would be created by the bill and strike language the sponsor described as “redundant.”

The measure says its purpose “is to allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions,” including major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders and end-of-life care. The state Department of Health would be able to approve additional conditions.

Therapy would consist of a preparation session, an administration session and a follow-up integration session.

The state health department would be responsible for establishing guidelines around training for clinicians and producers, including dosage, approved settings for administration, production and storage protocols and other best practices. State officials would also license producers to grow mushrooms and process psilocybin.

Synthetic psilocybin and synthetic analogs of the substance would not be allowed under the proposal.

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Nevada Senators Take Up Resolution Calling On Congress To Reschedule Psychedelics And Streamline Research

Nevada senators took up a joint resolution on Tuesday that calls on Congress to reschedule certain psychedelics, provide protections for individuals using the substances in compliance with state law and streamline research.

As the Nevada legislature pushes forward with psychedelics reform, the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee discussed the resolution from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D), hearing testimony from experts in the field.

“It is very much a grassroots, bipartisan issue. It is a Nevada issue,” Nguyen said in her opening remarks. “This is such an important issue. And this may seem like it’s an innocuous [resolution] where we’re sending a letter, but it is super important that we as a state send a message to the federal government—send a message to Washington, D.C.—that we need to start helping our community.”

“We have a mental health crisis. I don’t think you go into a committee room where you don’t hear about this,” she said. “This is just another solution to a problem that we have across our state.”

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Psychedelics Have ‘Promising Medical Applications,’ Congressional Watchdog Agency Says, But Research Challenges Remain

A federal agency has published a short report on the medical use of psychedelics, finding that their ability to “change a person’s perceptions and sense of self” can make for “promising medical applications.”

The paper, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), says there’s a need for further research, but it also notes that because psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA and psilocybin remain Schedule I controlled substances, securing permission to carry out that research can be a challenge.

“To conduct research on these drugs, scientists need to follow several steps,” the report from GAO, which is often referred to as Congress’s “watchdog,” states in a section about ongoing challenges. “These include obtaining permission from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, finding clinical grade drugs to test, and identifying appropriate spaces in which to test and store these drugs.”

“Difficulties associated with conducting large, blind trials of psychedelics have limited researchers’ ability to determine the safety and effectiveness of these drugs,” GAO continues, “which is required for them to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA approval is generally required before prescription drugs can be marketed for sale in the U.S.”

Despite the obstacles, the paper acknowledges that hundreds of clinical trials have investigated psychedelics as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

“Between 2015 and early 2025, over 340 trials on psychedelics began or were completed,” it says. “For example, one study found that psilocybin reduced depression symptoms more than escitalopram, an SSRI.”

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Can Kennedy Save Kids from Psychiatric Ravage?

President Trump issued an executive order last week creating a Make America Healthy Again Commission, to be chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Among other targets, the commission will examine “prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs], antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.”

Kennedy has been outspoken on the danger of SSRIs, linking them to school shootings and stating that members of his family “had a much worse time getting off of SSRIs than they have getting off of heroin.”

Kennedy’s views mortify the mainstream media. The Washington Post did a hefty piece portraying Kennedy’s commission as more dangerous than any drugs prescribed to children. To discover the absolute truth, the Post turned to the CEO of the American Psychiatric Association, who assured the Post that “psychiatric drugs can be very effective and generally are given to children carefully after front-line treatments such as talk therapy.”

Decades ago, who would have expected an apology for Adderall, Prozac, Zoloft, and similar drugs to sound like a pitch for Kellogg’s breakfast cereals? Prescription drug use is skyrocketing. Antidepressant prescriptions for young Americans aged 12 to 25 increased by 66% between 2016 and 2022.

The New York Times reported last year that many young people were left worse off thanks to “mental health interventions.” The Times showcased psychiatric “prevalence inflation” – a vast increase in reported mental illness among teenagers who are encouraged to view normal feelings as grave maladies requiring intervention. Oxford University psychologist Lucy Foulkes observed that school programs are “creating this message that teenagers are vulnerable, they’re likely to have problems, and the solution is to outsource them to a professional.”

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Liberal Women Are Lonely And Unhappy According To Recent Polls

The news must come as a shock to most, but it turns out that liberal women in the US are very unhappy.  A recently released poll from the American Family Survey held in 2024 shows that only 12% of liberal women are satisfied with their lives and that they are three times more likely to experience loneliness compared to conservative women.

The data reinforces a number of surveys over the years which reveal a continuing plunge in relative happiness among progressive western women despite their admission that they have more independence than ever before.

Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia and fellow at the Institute for Family Studies who analyzed the survey’s data, said he believes there are a couple of reasons why conservative young women are more likely to be happier than their liberal counterparts. 

“We’ve seen in the research that conservative women tend to be more likely to embrace a sense of agency and to have the sense that they are not, in any way, the victim of larger structural realities or forces,” he told Fox News Digital.  “They’re also less likely to catastrophize about public events and concerns,” and “more likely to think of themselves as captains of their own fate,” Wilcox added.

The survey also notes that conservative women are more likely to accept biological and social differences between males and females.  The ideal was thought to be common sense for thousands of years but has come under fire from feminists in the past decade as a “social construct of the patriarchy”.  The deconstruction of societal norms has been so pervasive, governments across the western world have tried to encode intersectional feminist taboos into law and punish people who remain skeptical.  

One side effect of the rise of feminist authority that liberals apparently did not expect is the decline in relative happiness of women.  The issue was fist noticed around 2009 when a study out of the University of Pennsylvania stunned the mainstream media – Despite decades of greater access to the jobs market, institutional influence and life options since the 1970s, young women have become increasingly less happy compared to their counterparts of past generations.  Though the study avoids addressing the problem of feminism directly, it does suggest that modern constructs may play a major role in creating anxiety for women.  

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Mental Health Experts See Massive Increase In “Despair And Burn Out” Among Democrats

Leftist outlet Axios has published an article claiming that mental health experts are seeing a huge increase in patients who are Democrat voters complaining of “despair and burn out” in the wake of President Trump winning the election and taking office for the second time.

The piece claims that the worn out whiners are whinging about not being able to keep up with the pace of Trump’s “rapid fire policies.”

The article notes “Mental health professionals say even people who don’t see themselves as directly affected by administration actions are feeling frazzled by the dizzying pace and Trump’s enduring ability to command attention.”

“They may feel it through the venting of a spouse, the distress of a neighbor with a trans child or an anxious friend who works for a government contractor,” it hilariously adds.

The piece further states that Andrea Bonior, a Georgetown University psychology professor “said she’s seen an uptick in patients, particularly Democrats, expressing a sense of burnout, guilt and despair at losing an old way of life.”

It adds that “Bonior pointed to federal workers who aren’t sure if they’ll be let go as well as others concerned about their immigration status or worried about loved ones whose refugee flights were canceled.”

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