The psilocybin program was pitched as another option to help solve the state’s mental health crisis. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox will let the program take effect later this spring.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Research is conducted at Numinus Wellness Inc. in Draper on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. Gov. Spencer Cox allowed a bill to go into effect that would authorize doctors at two of Utah’s biggest hospital systems to treat patients with psilocybin and MDMA.
Doctors at Utah’s two biggest health care systems will have the option to treat patients with psilocybin and MDMA — illegal drugs being fast-tracked for development by the Food and Drug Administration because of promising research showing their success in treating depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance misuse and other mental health issues.
While Gov. Spencer Cox did not sign the legislation to create this pilot program, he didn’t veto it either, citing “overwhelming legislative support.” He is allowing it to go into effect May 1, Cox announced Thursday.
“I am generally supportive of scientific efforts to discover the benefits of new substances that can relieve suffering,” Cox said in a statement. “However, we have a task force that was set up specifically to advise the Legislature on the best ways to study Psilocybin and I’m disappointed that their input was ignored.”
The task force ended last year and had previously released a report saying that while evidence suggests these drugs are safe and effective, lawmakers should wait to act until they were approved by the FDA. That hasn’t happened yet.
Lawmakers took that advice in 2023, when they failed to pass a similar, but more far-reaching bill that would have legalized psilocybin production, as well as a therapeutic pilot program. At the time, Cox said he didn’t “believe we should be experimenting on 5,000 people here in our state.”
This year’s bill,…
