Indiana’s Public Health, Behavioral Health and Human Services interim study committee has voted to recommend that the state approve a pilot program for psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) therapy.
Dried psilocybin mushrooms. (Photo credit: Rich Townsend/Getty Images)
According to a report released by the committee, the “prevailing view is that psilocybin should not be a Schedule I drug and has proven medical benefits.” With that in mind, the committee recommends “the Indiana General Assembly take an approach that strikes a balance between access, research, and prudence.”
To do this, they recommend the state “conduct a pilot clinical study utilizing established therapeutic protocols as a starting point to explore the efficacy, safety, and feasibility of psilocybin assisted therapy in Indiana.”
The committee was established in June to study “breakthrough therapy” options, and examine policies “enacted and under consideration in other states” that allow psilocybin “for veterans, first responders, and others experiencing mental illness.”
Senator Ed Charbonneau (R) at the last meeting said he has already had “discussions with both IU Health and with Purdue University”, and that he “spoke to 150 pharmacy students at Purdue, and afterward had a chance to speak with the dean of the pharmacy program”. He indicated that most are in support of a psilocybin pilot program.
While several states have begun to take the approach of establishing psilocybin pilot programs, both Colorado and Oregon recently passed laws legalizing the plant in addition to other psychedelics.
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