Marijuana Moment: Louisiana Lawmakers Pass Bill To Create Psychedelic Therapy Pilot Program Funded By Opioid Settlement Dollars, Sending It To Governor

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Louisiana lawmakers have sent the governor a bill to create a psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program, using opioid settlement dollars to fund clinical trials aimed at developing alternative treatments such as psilocybin, ibogaine and MDMA.

The Senate signed off the final version of the proposal from Sen. Patrick McMath (R) on Friday in a unanimous 35-0 vote and the House of Representatives’s tally to approve it was 97-0 on Sunday.

The House last month added MDMA to the scope of the original Senate legislation, and also made technical changes to the text. The Senate objected, however, to what supporters said was an error in the revised version, and members requested that the measure be sent to a bicameral conference committee, where that was resolved before the corrected bill came back to the floor of both chambers for final votes.

The psychedelics legislation now heads to the desk of Gov. Jeff Landry (R) for consideration.

Rep. Neil Riser (R), who presented the legislation to the House, said previously that the amendment adding MDMA “put us in positive correlation” with a psychedelics executive order recently signed by President Donald Trump “so that we can look at all different alternatives, including those that are beyond ibogaine that were listed it in the executive order.”

He discussed psychedelics as a much-needed alternative treatment option for military veterans and others dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), saying that “for every soldier that’s killed in action, five commit suicide when they get home.”

“So clearly, the best methodology of treatment that we’ve been using at the [Department of Veterans Affairs] or elsewhere really does not work,” he said. “There’s also the firemen and police officers that suffer from this post-traumatic stress.”

Riser told colleagues that “you’ll look back on a lot of pieces of legislation that you voted on and voted for.”

“This will be a piece of legislation that you will truly be proud to know that you change people’s lives,” he said.

If the legislation is enacted into law, the psychedelics program would be overseen by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), which would be responsible for facilitating clinical trials involving substances that hold therapeutic potential. The bill says that eligible participants would include people with opioid use disorders, co-occurring substance use disorders and treatment-resistant neurological or mental health conditions.

Any studies would need to go though the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigational drug approval process. Researchers would also need to be permitted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to conduct trials involving the Schedule I controlled substances.

Patients participating in the studies would need to go through mental and physical health screening, and researchers would also be required to develop processes that ensure safety and compliance, with adverse event reporting rules, training and licensing for therapists and policies for tracking and handling the psychedelics.

There are also provisions authorizing academic institutions to collaborate in the clinical trials to bolster FDA approval prospects to develop prescription drugs based on psychedelics. Researchers would also be encouraged to collaborate with institutions in other states that have similar programs in place.

If a drug is approved and developed as a result of the pilot program clinical trials, there would be a revenue sharing requirement. Under the bill as amended on the House floor, it says that “not less than a two and one-half percent of net sales” would go to the state, though a prior committee amendment had put that amount at 20 percent.

Under SB 43 as amended, Louisiana would participate in a national consortium for research and drug development. If a therapy does gain FDA approval, revenue tied to the intellectual property rights of that drug would go to the consortium (except for the portion specifically earmarked for Louisiana).

Last year, McMath also sponsored a resolution approved by the full chamber that called for the establishment of a task force to study and make recommendations on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics for veterans.

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Separately, the legislature also recently sent Landry a bill to let patients with terminal and irreversible conditions use medical marijuana in hospitals.

At the same time, however, advocates are alarmed that lawmaker passed, and the governor signed, legislation that threatens to send people to jail for up to one year if they smoke marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property—including a college campus.

Separately, a lawmaker recently filed a proposal that would create a new state task force to “study and develop findings and recommendations regarding the potential legalization of recreational marijuana.”

Another Louisiana lawmaker, meanwhile, recently introduced a bill to create an adult-use marijuana legalization pilot program in the state to determine whether the reform should eventually be expanded and permanently codified.

Rep. Candace Newell (D)—who has long championed legislation to end cannabis criminalization and filed a similar legal marijuana pilot program measure last session—is sponsoring what’s titled the “Adult-Use Cannabis Pilot Program Regulation and Enforcement Act.”

Getting the bill across the finish line could prove complicated in the conservative legislature, however. Newell’s earlier version of the pilot program legislation didn’t advance to enactment last year, and lawmakers that session also rejected other marijuana reform proposals such as one that would have established a tax system to prepare the eventual legalization of adult-use cannabis.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.

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