South Dakota Governor Signs Bills To Legalize Synthetic Psilocybin Following Federal Approval

*Supporters say the psychedelic can help veterans with PTSD and those with
treatment-resistant depression.*

*By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight*

A synthetic version of psychedelic mushrooms will be legal for use in
mental health therapy in South Dakota if it’s approved by the federal
government.

Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill into law last week that sets the
state up to instantly legalize crystalline polymorph psilocybin if the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration approves its use and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration reschedules it from a drug of abuse to a drug with medical
value.

House Bill 1099 sailed through the House of Representatives 58-7 on the
strength of testimony about the drug’s promise in clinical trials as a more
effective option for post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant
depression.

Lobbyists for combat veterans testified in support of the measure.

The bill met a bit more resistance in the Senate, where Rapid City
Republican Sen. Greg Blanc pulled it from the chamber’s consent calendar—a
list of noncontroversial bills passed with a single vote unless a senator
asks to remove one—to decry the idea of using a psychedelic drug in therapy.

Blanc pleaded with his fellow senators to resist the bill’s conditional
legalization, but supporters returned repeatedly to the theme of hope for
veterans and treatment-resistant depression and stressed that nothing would
happen until the federal government green-lit the drug as safe and
effective.

The bill passed the Senate 21-12.

*This story was first published by South Dakota Searchlight.*

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Following Federal Approval appeared first on Marijuana Moment.