Thanks to a recently introduced bill, New Mexico could be the next state to legalize clinical psilocybin treatments.
The Medical Psilocybin Act (SB 219) would give patients with certain qualifying conditions access to psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. With the proposed bill, patients would be allowed to use the drug under the supervision of a licensed healthcare provider in a therapeutic setting. It would be available for patients suffering from PTSD, substance abuse disorders, major treatment-resistant depression and end-of-life care.
If passed, the bill would give control of the program to the state’s Department of Health (DOH).
According to the text of the bill, it was introduced to “allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions.”
State Sen. Martin Hickey (D), one of the bill’s sponsors, tells The Paper. that psilocybin therapy would help some of the state’s most greatly valued members: Emergency responders. “A third of police and firemen are subject to severe PTSD,” says Hickey.
He says that scientific research is revealing what psilocybin can do for them and others like them. “The clinical evidence is becoming overwhelming,” says Hickey. “So much so that the FDA now has treatments with psilocybin in the clinical format, which is over an extended period of time — about four or five days — with guiding counseling as well as the use of the medication — what we often call ‘Medicine For the Journey.’ The outcomes have been so impressive that the FDA is now in what we call Phase III clinical trial.”
The Phase III trial indicates that researchers already have considerable evidence that a drug is effective and are now looking to compare its efficacy with more traditional medications and treatments.
“Psilocybin therapy offers hope for veterans and others battling PTSD and anxiety,” says Rep. Andrea Romero (D), another sponsor of the bill. “With broad bipartisan support, this pilot program honors their service by exploring innovative, compassionate healing. Together, we can turn hope into action.”
Hickey says the therapeutic use of psilocybin will be seen as a major shift in the medical paradigm of the U.S. “The emergence of clinical use of Psilocybin for PTSD, deep depression, addiction, end of life and more is as important to behavioral heath as penicillin was to infectious diseases,” he says. “Penicillin is a mold. It blew in and landed on a petri dish full of pneumonia bacteria, and they started to notice the bacteria around it were dying. [Psilocybin] is just like that — another naturally occurring substance.”
The bill specifically forbids the use of synthetic psilocybin, meaning treatments will only utilize the natural form of the drug found in mushrooms.
Hickey stresses the point that this bill is in no way similar to the one that legalized medical cannabis, and that the state will be dealing with the two drugs in very different ways. “With medical marijuana, you get the marijuana, you go home and you have a good time,” he says. “No, this is all under very tight clinical supervision.”
He says anyone expecting to be able to use it for recreation will be in for a rude awakening. “There’s some people who will say, ‘Oh, great, we get to grow it and sell it.’ Absolutely not. You do that, you’re going behind bars,” says Hickey.
Under the bill, the DOH would be in charge of establishing qualifications for producers, clinicians and patients. It would also maintain training for licensees and create treatment protocols. The bill doesn’t outline dosage standards or approved settings. The department would also determine safety regulations and best practices for producing and handling mushrooms.
Health officials would also be tasked with collecting and analyzing data to continuously update the program to meet the latest standards in production and treatment. For this mission, the DOH would be expected to team up with higher education institutions like the University of New Mexico (UNM), health care providers and an advisory board that the bill would create.
The “Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board” would be made up of nine members “who are knowledgeable about the medical use of psilocybin.” At least one member would be an enrolled member of an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo, one would be a mental or behavioral health equity advocate and one would be a representative of the health care authority.
The board would review and recommend qualifying conditions, accept petitions to review conditions and recommend preparation rules and dosage standards. They would be expected to meet at least twice a year for public hearings.
Psilocybin programs in other states have been criticized for seemingly catering to affluent patients. In Oregon, where the state boasts at least 27 service centers and over 300 licensed facilitators after one year, the only patients who have to worry about gaining access to the drug are those who can’t afford it. As of late last year, one psilocybin session can end up costing a patient around $1,200.
New Mexico lawmakers want to ensure that the treatments are available to everyone. “What we want to see is that we’re able to broaden it out, regardless of any socioeconomic status — especially for people of less means,” says Hickey.
The bill would require DOH to produce an annual report assessing the program with special attention paid to “the needs of qualified patients who live in rural areas, federal subsidized housing or on reservations of New Mexico Indian nations, tribes or pueblos.”
The bill would create a “medical psilocybin treatment equity fund” consisting of appropriations, gifts, grants and donations that would be used to cover treatment costs for patients who meet income requirements.
The bill would also create a “medical psilocybin research fund” to provide grants to state research universities and health care providers that are studying the medical use of magic mushrooms.
Hickey says the bill has support and that he expects it to pass.