New Mexico Governor Signs Budget Bill With Funds To Provide Psychedelic Therapy Access For Low-Income People
- New Mexico’s governor signed a budget bill allocating nearly $800,000 to support therapeutic psilocybin research and treatment access, including $150,000 for a medical psilocybin treatment equity fund and $480,000 for a psychedelic access equity fund.
- The budget also provides $150,000 to the University of New Mexico for psilocybin-assisted therapy research and extends a $1 million appropriation to the Department of Health to administer the psilocybin program through fiscal year 2027.
- The state’s psilocybin law allows patients with qualifying conditions such as treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders to access psilocybin therapy under medical supervision, with strict regulations on training, dosage, and production, excluding synthetic psilocybin substances.
- A nine-member advisory board has been created to recommend qualifying conditions and program rules, while earlier legislative efforts to study psilocybin therapy advancement occurred alongside resolutions supporting continued research and regulatory framework development in 2024.
The governor of New Mexico has signed a budget bill that provides nearly $800,000 in funding to support the state’s therapeutic psilocybin research efforts, including financial assistance to help low-income residents access treatment with the psychedelic.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) gave final approval to the budget legislation on Wednesday that stipulates that $150,000 will go toward medical psilocybin treatment equity fund “to support medical psilocybin efforts.” Another $480,000 is generally earmarked for the psychedelic access equity fund.
Additionally, the legislation allocates $150,000 to the University of New Mexico for a psilocybin-assisted therapy research program.
Another section of the budget bill the governor signed states that the time period for a $1 million appropriation to the Department of Health to administer the psilocybin program is being extended through the end of the 2027 fiscal year. Last year, the department separately announced that the program would be launching on an expedited timeline, potentially starting as early as this December.
Lujan Grisham signed the underlying medical psilocybin bill last year, It’s meant to allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to access the psychedelic and use it under the guidance of a licensed healthcare provider.
The law states the purpose “is to allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions,” including major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders and end-of-life care. The Department of Health would be able to approve additional conditions.
Psilocybin therapy will consist of a preparation session, an administration session and a follow-up integration session.
The health department will be responsible for establishing guidelines around training for clinicians and producers, including dosage, approved settings for administration, production and storage protocols and other best practices. State officials will also license producers to grow mushrooms and process psilocybin.
Synthetic psilocybin and synthetic analogs of the substance will not be allowed under the law.
A nine-member advisory board, which was recently convened, will recommend additional qualifying conditions as well as rules around preparation and dosage. The board will also review outside petitions for additional qualifying conditions.
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In 2023, the House Health and Human Services Committee also passed a bill that called for the creation of a state body to study the possibility of launching a psilocybin therapy program for certain patients. That measure did not advance further in the 2023 session, however.
New Mexico lawmakers passed, and the governor endorsed, a resolution in 2024 requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.
Meanwhile, a group of New Mexico marijuana businesses last year urged a federal judge not to dismiss its lawsuit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) over the agency’s alleged overreach in seizing state-legal cannabis products and detaining industry workers. But the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico did ultimately dismiss the case last month.
Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert.