Tag: the war on (some) drugs

New Mexico Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Psilocybin Therapy And Research Resolution

A New Mexico Senate committee has unanimously approved a bipartisan 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.

The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee voted 7-0 to pass the resolution from Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt (R) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) on Saturday.

As “memorial” legislation, the bicameral proposal wouldn’t be binding. Rather, it would represent a formal request for the state Department of Health to “study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments.”

The whereas section of the resolution cites various studies supporting the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as major depression and substance misuse, while pointing out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy.”

To that end, the measure states that the health department should look into “necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing” a state-level psilocybin program.

“This can help people very potentially, and so what we’re trying to do in a bipartisan way is ask the Department of Health to recognize that we want them to get going to start looking at this,” Steinborn said during Saturday’s committee hearing.

The measure “really seeks to expand therapeutic options for New Mexicans,” he said.

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South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Requiring Medical Marijuana Patients To Acknowledge Federal Gun Ban

The governor of South Dakota has signed a bill into law that will require patients to check off a box on medical marijuana card applications affirming that they’re aware that federal law prohibits cannabis consumers from buying and possessing firearms.

Gov. Kristi Noem (R) gave final approval to the legislation on Monday—about two weeks after it cleared the legislature. The measure represents a slightly dialed-back version of the original bill from Rep. Kevin Jensen (R), as it previously would have required prospective patients to sign their name on the application to acknowledge the federal gun rule.

Last month, a South Dakota Senate committee rejected a separate, more controversial House-passed bill that would have required medical marijuana dispensaries to post notices at their businesses warning patients about the federal gun ban for cannabis consumers. Those that failed to post the warnings would have faced daily fines.

The House advanced both gun-related cannabis measures last month, but the Senate committee only passed the amended version of the bill to mandate that patients fill out the checkbox for the firearm disclosure on their applications.

“It does nothing but inform the people,” Jensen said of his bill at last month’s committee hearing.

The governor said the gun legislation, as well as four other unrelated public health-centered measures she signed on Monday, “will keep South Dakotans safe and healthy.”

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Indiana House Panel Approves Psilocybin Research Bill That Already Passed Full Senate

An Indiana House committee has approved a Republican-led bill that would fund clinical research trials into psilocybin that has already cleared the full Senate.

After adopting one amendment, the House Public Health Committee advanced the legislation in a 12-1 vote on Tuesday.

“This is not fringe science at this point, so my original intent was to elevate this potential,” Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R), the bill’s sponsor, told panel members ahead of the vote. “It creates hope for people that currently are in hopeless situations.”

“I think it’s important that we get clear right up front that this bill does not make anything legal that’s illegals today,” he said, highlighting the research-focused nature of the legislation.

Rep. Brad Barrett (R), who chairs the committee, said he was initially “incredibly skeptical” of psilocybin’s therapeutic potential but was moved by testimony he heard during an interim study session on the issue that lawmakers convened last year and “left there with the same kind of feeling” that Charbonneau expressed about the psychedelic’s ability to help people.

Last week, the Senate passed the psychedelics measure in a 47-1 vote. That followed the proposal being passed unanimously by the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Health and Provider Services Committee.

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DEA Failed To Explain Rejection Of Psilocybin Waiver To Treat Cancer Patients, Federal Appeals Court Challenge Says

Lawyers for a doctor in Washington State seeking to legally use psilocybin for end-of-life care argue in a new federal appeals court filing that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) failed to explain a key decision when it denied him access to the psychedelic. They’re asking judges to reverse that move, calling it arbitrary and capricious, and order the government to review the matter anew.

The opening brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week is the latest development in what’s become a years-long effort by Dr. Sunil Aggarwal and the Advanced Integrative Medical Science (AIMS) Institute to treat terminally ill cancer patients with psilocybin.

The new action takes aim against DEA’s decision in 2022 to deny Aggarwal’s requests to access psilocybin under state and federal right-to-try (RTT) laws, which give patients with terminal conditions the opportunity to try investigational medications that have not been approved for general use.

Washington State adopted a right-to-try law in 2017, and then-President Donald Trump signed the federal Right to Try Act the following year. Dozens of other states have enacted their own right-to-try policies.

Over the years, Aggarwal has presented DEA with multiple proposals in order either to legally cultivate or otherwise obtain psilocybin to treat his patients, arguing that the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) must accommodate a path to legally accessing the substance under RTT laws.

“DEA has rejected each request,” the new brief says, “but has never addressed the arguments that Dr. Aggarwal has raised in support of them.”

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FDA Grants Priority Review Of MDMA-Assisted Therapy For PTSD, Psychedelics Drug Development Company Says

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to review MDMA-assisted therapy as a potential treatment option for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the application has been granted priority status, according to the psychedelics-focused drug development company that’s leading the effort.

About two months after Lykos Therapeutics (formerly MAPS Public Benefit Corporation) submitted the new drug application (NDA) for MDMA in combination with psychotherapy, FDA granted it priority review last week and has set a target date for determination by August 11, the company announced on Friday.

If the NDA is ultimately approved, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would then need to reschedule MDMA accordingly. It would become the first psychedelic in history to be approved as a pharmaceutical, to be administered in tandem with talk therapy and other supportive services.

“Securing priority review for our investigational MDMA-assisted therapy is a significant accomplishment and underscores the urgent unmet need for new innovation in the treatment of PTSD,” Lykos CEO Amy Emerson said in a press release. “We remain focused on working with the FDA through the review process and preparing for a controlled launch with an emphasis on quality should this potential treatment be approved.”

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Pennsylvania Governor Says Lawmakers ‘Don’t Even Have A Choice’ But To Legalize Marijuana As Other States Move Ahead

Pennsylvania’s governor says he thinks officials in the state “don’t even have a choice anymore” on legalizing marijuana, and he feels there’s bipartisan momentum that lawmakers should leverage to get the job done.

With neighboring states such as Ohio enacting legalization in recent years, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said last week that “this really comes down to an issue now of competitiveness,” as the state is currently “losing out on 250 million bucks a year in revenue that could go to anything from economic development, education, you name it.”

“The reality is, as long as we have safeguards in place to make sure our children aren’t getting their hands on it—it’s just like, we don’t want our kids out drinking, right?” he said. “And a lot of that is going to be a burden on parents and schools and others to make sure we educate on that. Then I think this is something we’ve got to compete on.”

“I actually think we don’t even have a choice anymore given the way in which this is moving so quickly across our region and across the country,” Shapiro told WILK News Radio, adding that he’s personally “evolved on” the issue and wants a legal cannabis market “focused on lifting up Pennsylvania businesses in the process—not these big national conglomerates—and we’re empowering people in local communities to it that I think some good can come from it.”

The governor made the comments days after unveiling a budget proposal that calls for marijuana legalization to be enacted this year, with sales beginning as early as next January.

Cannabis reform has stalled in the Pennsylvania legislature over recent sessions, but Shapiro said he sees a path forward this year.

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Margaret Mead’s LSD Memo

With her paper-cluttered desk spotlit underneath a pendant lamp, Margaret Mead’s office in the western turret in the American Museum of Natural History resembled a Broadway theater set. All around her in the shadows hung masks and carved figures, as if the museum dioramas from the floors below had begun to creep into her workspace.

Back in her spiritual home after spending the last six months of 1953 in Manus, she felt refreshed, confident. She was already thinking through her book about her experience; New Lives for Old would be the title, and it would describe the Noise, an apocalyptic religious movement which spread through the island of Manus, which lies northeast of New Guinea, in the aftermath of World War II. In 1947, a prophet had emerged on Manus who predicted a coming age of abundance, even immortality. But first, the old ways had to be cast out. Reports poured in of visionary experiences, trance states, even seizures. Hats of colonial officials were ritually burned, and a coming age of abundance was proclaimed. Mead found the Noise fascinating because she saw it as a prelude to other new cultural forms which she believed would appear elsewhere as a response to the rapid changes of the 20th century—including in the United States. She saw the movement in relatively benign terms. True, it really was an apocalyptic cult, she wrote, complete with mystical “prophetic dreams” and the promise of “a utopia to be immediately established on earth.” But who said utopian dreams were entirely bad?

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Washington State Marijuana Homegrow Proposal Dies In House Committee Without Getting A Vote

Adults in Washington State who grow marijuana at home will continue to face the threat of felony charges for at least another year following a House committee’s failure to advance a cannabis homegrow bill ahead of a legislative deadline this week.

HB 2194 was not called for a vote in the House Appropriations Committee before the February 5 deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal panels, meaning it’s no longer eligible to move forward. The marijuana home cultivation measure passed out of a separate House committee last month, though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they were wary of the change.

Washington was one of the first U.S. states to legalize adult-use marijuana, passing a ballot initiative in 2012. Growing marijuana for personal use without a state medical card, however, remains a Class C felony, carrying up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

Legislative efforts to allow personal cultivation stretch back to at least 2015, but so far each has failed.

Lead sponsor Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This bill is actually a long time coming,” Kloba told colleagues at last month’s committee hearing. “This is something that many other states have done, and it is time for us to do it, as well.”

If passed, HB 2194 would have allowed adults 21 and older to grow up to four plants per person, with no more than 10 allowed per household.

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Maine Democratic Governor And GOP Senate Leader Oppose Bill To Decriminalize Drugs And Invest In Treatment

Maine saw a reduction in the number of overdose deaths in 2023. But with hundreds upon hundreds of drug-related deaths last year, advocates and lawmakers say the state is still in the midst of a serious crisis.

In total, there were 607 confirmed or suspected overdose deaths in 2023, a 16 percent drop from the record total of 723 in 2022. Along with the 607 deaths, there were 9,047 confirmed nonfatal overdoses last year (compared to 9,760 in 2022).

“I think it’s hard to talk about this because that’s still 607 people who died last year and I don’t want to celebrate that whatsoever,” said Courtney Gary-Allen, organizing director of the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project. “That being said, there is a reduction, and I think we should be proud of the work that we’ve all collectively done on this issue.”

Gary-Allen cited investments in treatment by Gov. Janet Mills’ administration, the bipartisan consensus that substance use is a serious crisis that needs to be addressed, and the passage of the Good Samaritan law—which created enhanced protections from prosecution at the scene of an overdose to encourage people to call for help—as possible reasons for the reduction in deaths in 2023. Others have also cited the increased availability of the opioid overdose reversal naloxone.

Still, Gary-Allen said there is much more to do to address the overdose epidemic.

“I still have the faces in my head” of those who have died from drug overdoses, she said.

One proposal, backed by advocates in the recovery community and sponsored by Rep. Lydia Crafts (D-Newcastle), is to decriminalize the personal possession of illegal drugs and invest in an array of treatment options.

Supporters of the measure argue that criminalizing drug use pushes people into the shadows, making it harder for them to get help. Policing drug use and imprisoning people for substance use-related crimes also takes money away from a treatment-based approach, proponents of the bill say.

In all, policy analysts estimate the state could save around $45 million a year from not punishing people for possession of small amounts of drugs. Under the terms of the proposal, that money would then be invested into expanding what advocates say are often scant treatment options around the state.

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VP Kamala Harris Claims Administration ‘Changed Federal Marijuana Policy’ While Using Incorrect Map Of State Legalization Laws

Vice President Kamala Harris cited the Biden administration’s moves toward reforming federal marijuana laws in a new video appealing to young voters—though her specific claim that policies have already been “changed” is premature. Meanwhile, the video also features a map that purports to highlight states that have legalized cannabis but that contains misinformation about which jurisdictions have actually ended criminalization.

“We changed federal marijuana policy, because nobody should have to go to jail just for smoking weed,” Harris says in the video, posted to X on Friday.

While President Joe Biden has issued mass pardons for people who have committed federal cannabis offenses and initiated a review of marijuana’s federal scheduling status, the clemency move did not free anyone from incarceration and the drug currently remains under Schedule I pending the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) ongoing consideration of a Schedule III recommendation from health officials.

As such, the vice president’s claim that federal marijuana policy has already been “changed” in order to ensure that people aren’t in jail for cannabis is inflated.

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