Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment:
A Texas lawmaker introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require the state to study the therapeutic potential of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine in the treatment of certain mental health conditions.
The legislation from Rep. Alex Dominguez (D) would mandate that the Department of State Health Services conduct the study in collaboration with the Texas Medical Board and report on its findings by December 1, 2022.
Researchers should “evaluate and determine whether alternative therapies are effective in treating the mental health and other medical conditions” such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, chronic pain and migraines, the text of the bill, HB 1802, states.
The study should also “compare the efficacy of the alternative therapies with the efficacy of treatments currently used for the mental health and other medical conditions,” it continues.
A couple weeks ago legislators in Connecticut filed a bill to establish a task force for studying the medicinal benefits of psilocybin and now Texas is following suit with this legislation. It’s nice to see states getting directly involved with psychedelic research—hopefully their studies will help them enact some progressive state-level drug policy reforms in the near future.