The Alaska Senate Committee advanced on Friday a bill to create a Task Force to study the licensing and regulation of psychedelic assisted therapy, in anticipation of a federal legalization.
Members of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, who first reviewed the bill earlier this month, adopted a replacement from its sponsor, Senator Forrest Dunbar. The committee sent the bill “with individual suggestions” out of committee, and added a new note on the fiscal side that brought the cost estimate of the taskforce down to zero.
These changes align the Senate bill SB 166 with the companion House bill HB 228 , which also underwent changes last week in committee.
Dunbar, who spoke at the Senate committee meeting on Friday, said that despite the changes “the task force’s overriding goal is the same. We are preparing Alaska – hopefully preparing – for what we believe will be the likely legalization of certain substances in a medical context.”
Recent clinical trials indicate that MDMA could be approved by the FDA later this year.
This bill does not legalize any of the following. Dunbar stated that the bill does not promote legalization. The task force will be tasked with creating a regulatory framework and licensing system “in anticipation” for federal approval and rescheduling.
The latest substitute bill makes some changes to the statement of intent in order to reflect this framing. Some changes to the composition of the taskforce include removing the requirement for an ethnoherbalist to be on the panel, and adding a representative from advanced practice nurses who are likely involved in psychedelic assisted therapy. Dunbar claimed that the original drafting error was corrected in the latest version. The task force would dissolve in January 2025, rather than at end of next legislative session.
Rep. Jennie Armstrong, a Democrat from the House of Representatives, has proposed similar changes.
In order to reduce the fiscal note of the proposal to zero, which is likely to gain broader support from the legislature, the Senate substitute also changes the task force to a legislative one rather than an administrative one and removes provisions earlier for travel expenses and per diems for task force participants. It also removes the requirement that the members appear in front of the legislature. Dunbar, however, said he hoped some members from the volunteer panel would still do so.
Last month , sponsors submitted the legislation to both chambers of Congress.
Armstrong, the sponsor of the bill in the House, told his colleagues last week that, despite its subject matter sounding “quite provocation, I think you will find that this is actually quite a staid measure.”
She said that “what we’re proposing is the most conservative thing.” She pointed out that other states such as Oregon and Colorado have already legalized therapeutic use of psychedelics at the state-level and started licensing.
Armstrong explained that under the Alaska Bill “the recommendations [from the taskforce] will only be implemented if the FDA approves the prescription of these medications,” he said.
Other states, such as New Mexico, Indiana and Indiana have recently advanced psychedelics-related research bills in their current legislative sessions.
At the federal level, FDA is actively evaluating a new drug request for MDMA to be used as a treatment option for those with post-traumatic disorder (PTSD).
As the agency weighs the application, new standards from the American Medical Association (AMA) have officially taken effect that assign psychedelics-specific codes to collect data on the novel therapies.
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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently released a call for applications to to conduct in-depth studies on the use of psychedelics as a treatment for PTSD and depression.
A Republican California lawmaker has filed a bill to create a workgroup in the state to explore a regulatory framework that will allow therapeutic access to psychedelics such as psilocybin or ibogaine, and ultimately allow health professionals administer certain psychedelics.
Massachusetts officials separately certified that activists had submitted enough valid signatures to force legislative consideration of an psychedelics-legalization initiative, before the measure could potentially head to the state’s ballot in 2024.
Nevada psychedelics activist said that late last year they had a “productive” meeting with the Republican Governor’s Office about , the need to quickly form a taskforce under a law passed last year to inform future reforms–including possible legalizations of plant-based medicine.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), earlier this year , confirmed that the spores from psychedelic mushroom are federally legal before germination as they do not contain psilocybin and psilocin.
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