The California Assembly unanimously approved a Republican led bill that created a state working group to explore a regulatory framework for providing therapeutic access to psychedelics such as psilocybin or ibogaine.
The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 58-0 on Tuesday. The measure was unanimously approved by and two Assembly committees a few weeks ago.
Waldron stated on the floor that “these therapies have the potential of saving countless lives.” As we all know, California has a serious mental health crisis, with increasing rates of anxiety and depression, substance abuse, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, and suicide. AB 941 offers a solution by exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelic assisted therapy.
The bill would allow practitioners of medicine to administer psychedelics legally in a therapeutic environment if the California Health and Human Services Agency, CalHHS, were to adopt the regulatory framework recommended by the California Workgroup.
Waldron stated, “We need data, research and recommendations from experts in this promising therapeutic field.” “AB 941 is a proactive, forward-thinking solution to the mental-health crisis in California. It’s also the key to unlocking psychedelics’ therapeutic potential in clinical settings. We must prioritise the accessibility of innovative treatment for our frontline heroes and veterans, as well as first responders. They urgently require these transformative interventions.
The version of the legislation that is moving forward has been amended from what Waldron initially introduced last year, which focused exclusively on psychedelics-assisted therapy for military veterans. The revision comes at the same time as the sponsor and Sen. Scott Wiener, (D), are working on separate legislation that will establish a more encompassing therapeutic access model in California for psychedelics.
Waldron has stressed that this bill is “true research” and “nobody will be treated using psychedelics.” However, the measure would allow access to therapeutic psychedelics if the legislative body adopted a regulatory framework, as recommended by the working group.
Accordingly, “psychedelic-assisted treatment” is defined as the “supervised, legal medical use of controlled substances for treatment including, but without limitation, group counseling and healing in a community setting, under care, administration, and treatment by a licensed professional, in a clinic setting.”
Wiener has said that the bill on which he is working with Waldron will be presented in the next few weeks.
In the last few legislative cycles the senator has been pushing psychedelics legislation. His bill to legalize some entheogenic drugs passed the legislature, but was vetoed the following year by the Governor. Gavin Newsom (D). In his veto letter, the Governor encouraged lawmakers to submit an alternative proposal that focused on therapeutic access. That’s what Wiener & Waldron aim to do in a measure still forthcoming.
Waldron’s revised measure, however, is more restrictive than the legislation that the bipartisan pair plans to introduce soon.
The legislative summary states that CalHHS would be required to create a working group “to study and provide recommendations on establishing a framework for psychedelic assisted therapy.”
The bill states that “the workgroup would be required to submit a report to Parliament containing these recommendations by or before January 1, 2020.” And if the legislature does enact a framework for psychedelics-assisted therapy, it would “authorize a facilitator in a licensed facility to administer specified controlled substances to combat veterans.”
Wiener said to Marijuana Moment in an interview earlier this month, that his partner who is leading the larger push told him that their revised legislation was being moved as a “backup to our bill and not instead” of it. He stated that the plan was to introduce their bipartisan measure at the end of this month or in early February.
At an event held last month, the Senator said that the state was at an “inflection” point in psychedelic reform. He added that he had understood the Governor’s main concern with his bill, which included provisions to allow low-level possession.
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A California campaign that wanted to place psilocybin on the November ballot in California announced recently that had not gathered enough signatures to meet a deadline.
Last year, another campaign submitted and then abruptly withdrawn an initiative to establish a $5 billion agency charged with funding and promoting research on psychedelics.
Late last year, proposed to legalize possession and cultivation of substances such as psilocybin. MDMA, DMT and ibogaine. They could be purchased for therapeutic purposes with a physician’s prescription. The advocates for this measure have still time to collect signatures and submit them.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office has released its analysis of the proposal. It outlines not only its policy implications, but its potential fiscal impact on the state — which the report describes as “various” or “uncertain.”
In the meantime, some California municipalities are moving forward with reform at the local level. In The HTML
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