Georgia Senate Committee Recommends $5 Million Investment To Research Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy For PTSD

A study committee in Georgia’s Senate is recommending that the state earmark as much as $5 million to fund research into how psychedelic substances such as MDMA and psilocybin might be used to treat PTSD.

The advice comes as part of a report from the Study Committee on Veterans’ Mental Health and Housing published this week ahead of the coming legislative session, which kicks off in January.

Among other recommendations, the new report urges state officials to “allocate up to $5 million to support innovative studies on the use of psychedelic therapies (such as MDMA, psilocybin, and other compounds)” for the treatment of post traumatic stress (PTS), traumatic brain injury (TBI) and “other mental health conditions affecting veterans.”

The recommendations also say the legislature should amend Georgia law to automatically keep the state’s own drug-scheduling statutes in sync with federal scheduling statutes as well as “to remove unnecessary obstacles to implementation” and “accelerate medical access for veterans.”

The bipartisan committee consists of five senators: Sen. Chuck Payne (R), who chairs the group, as well as Sens. Shawn Still (R), Ed Harbison (D), Rick Williams (R) and Josh McLaurin (D).

Harbison told colleagues at a meeting on Wednesday that initially he was “very reluctant about the psilocybin mushrooms and all the psychedelic things that were presented to us as curative things for PTSD” but added that he was swayed by experiences from veterans themselves.

Specifically, he pointed to the story of GoDaddy company founder Bob Parsons, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who credits LSD and MDMA with helping him manage the condition.

“He was saying how badly he fared when he got out of Vietnam,” said Harbison, himself a Vietnam veteran. “He finally found this particular protocol and engaged in it, and it helped him greatly.”

“It made me look another direction towards perhaps utilizing this,” the Democrat added. “Maybe this is something that I can support as well.”

As the report notes, the committee also heard testimony from Logan Davidson, legislative consultant for the group Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), which works to connect veterans with psychedelic therapy in jurisdictions where it’s legal. Davidson called on Georgia “to become a leader in psychedelic research by establishing a robust program to support these treatments, setting a new standard for integrating psychedelics into healthcare,” according to the report’s summary of his testimony.

Others who weighed in included VETS co-founder Marcus Capone, who is a former Navy SEAL, and his wife, Amber Capone, who also co-founded the organization. Amber “described how traditional treatments, including SSRIs, often fail to provide meaningful mental health support and carry risks of increased suicidality,” the legislative report says.

“According to the Capones,” it adds, “psychedelic-assisted therapy outside the U.S. was the only treatment that brought life-changing relief after years of unsuccessful treatments for Mr. Capone.”

Others who testified in support of the research spending include representatives for the group Reason for Hope, which advocates for veteran access to psychedelic-assisted therapy, as well as Baylor College of Medicine professor Lynette Averill.

Averill, whose father was a Vietnam veteran and died by suicide, “presented on the significant potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies to address the mental health crisis facing veterans,” the report says. “She explained that studies have shown rapid neural growth after just one treatment, with effects lasting for weeks or even months, allowing patients to re evaluate trauma and life experiences.”

Averill also noted that psilocybin “may be as effective or more effective than SSRIs like escitalopram (Lexapro) for treating depression,” the document adds, “while MDMA has shown superior results in PTSD therapy.”

Lawmakers heard from those commenters and others during a meeting late last month.

The conversation around psychedelic-assisted therapy and PTSD has been ongoing in the Georgia legislature during the last few years.

For example, lawmakers also discussed the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin for serious mental health conditions at a hearing focused on veterans in 2022.

The House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee approved a bipartisan resolution that year that called for the formation of a House study committee to investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and make recommendations for reforms. But there were more than a dozen study committee that were created during that session, and the psychedelics proposal was set aside.

Meanwhile in Georgia, nearly a year after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent letters to dozens of Georgia pharmacies warning them against dispensing medical marijuana in accordance with state law, at least one pharmacy is now selling cannabis in open defiance of the federal agency.

A pharmacist in Augusta, Vic Johnson, who owns the Living Well Pharmacy, began selling medical marijuana to state-registered patients in September.

Georgia’s medical marijuana law is the first in the nation that, at least in theory, allows registered pharmacies to dispense cannabis. That plan, however, was largely put on hold following Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warnings last November that pharmacies licensed with the agency “may only dispense controlled substances in Schedules II-V of the Controlled Substances Act.”

Read the full report from the Georgia Senate Veterans’ Mental Health and Housing Committee below:

DEA Judge Invites Prohibitionist Group To Explain Allegedly ‘Unlawful’ Talks With Agency Amid Marijuana Rescheduling Review

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.