Utah Is Creating A Task Force To Recommend Psychedelic Medicine & Therapies For Mental Illnesses

One Utah House committee member recently shed light on the number of psychedelic retreats and assisted-therapy sessions around the world, like Mexico or Jamaica. Patients from the United States frequently participate in these getaway retreats, and more often than not, they come back changed people. 

Rep. Brady Brammer (R) wanted to help Americans make use of psychedelics and assisted therapies right here at home. “I much prefer that they do it safely and they do it here,” he says, according to Marijuana Moment. For this reason and many more, Brammer sponsored a bill that would designate a task force to make further findings on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and make state regulations for patients who choose to use them. 

The House Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill with a 10-1 vote. The Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force is currently in the making, which, according to Marijuana Moment, would study psychedelics and recommend how they could be used in treating mental illnesses. 

Brammer hopes to open minds and utilize the existing research that states how psychedelics could treat various mental illnesses, especially depression, PTSD, addiction, and immense stress. On Thursday, he proposed the new bill and emphasized the importance of psychedelic reform to give patients the medicine they require.

Brammer explained that he saw psychedelic therapies as a beneficial tool that could aid the country’s mental health crisis, especially during the pandemic. He said at the hearing, “we need it in our toolbox—but it needs to be safe, and we need to do it the right way.”

Although all looks promising, Brammer made clear that the bill does not make psychedelics legal. Instead, the designated task force would have more leeway to study the substances and recommend administering them based on new and existing evidence.

As per the Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force, the list of recommendations it will provide are as follows:

• which symptoms can psychedelics treat
• what doses are required for certain conditions
• how to administer the substances
• how companies can become trained and licensed to use psychedelics for legal research
• where to get the substances
• how to use the substances safely

Brammer was pleased to be backed with support from not only the House but others who’ve recognized how psychedelic substances have helped change their lives. At the hearing on Thursday, Brammer said he was pleasantly “surprised” to hear about other people’s experiences with psychedelic retreats and assisted therapies. 

Under the new measure, Brammer and the majority of the Utah House committee hope to steer the public away from self-medicating psychedelics and help them find options to use these substances safely in their home country.