Nevada Senators Take Up Resolution Calling On Congress To Reschedule Psychedelics And Streamline Research

Nevada senators took up a joint resolution on Tuesday that calls on Congress to reschedule certain psychedelics, provide protections for individuals using the substances in compliance with state law and streamline research.

As the Nevada legislature pushes forward with psychedelics reform, the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee discussed the resolution from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D), hearing testimony from experts in the field.

“It is very much a grassroots, bipartisan issue. It is a Nevada issue,” Nguyen said in her opening remarks. “This is such an important issue. And this may seem like it’s an innocuous [resolution] where we’re sending a letter, but it is super important that we as a state send a message to the federal government—send a message to Washington, D.C.—that we need to start helping our community.”

“We have a mental health crisis. I don’t think you go into a committee room where you don’t hear about this,” she said. “This is just another solution to a problem that we have across our state.”

The resolution goes through research demonstrating the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in the treatment of serious mental health conditions and calls on the federal government to “reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA to a schedule that better reflects the therapeutic value, low potential for abuse and safety for use under medical supervision of those compounds.”

It also points out that there have been federal developments on the issue, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designation of certain psychedelics as “breakthrough therapies” and research that’s being funded to explore the substances at the Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The measure urges Congress to increase funding for further research, establish a “streamlined process for approving and conducting research with psychedelic compounds,” and reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Further, it calls for the establishment of “legal protection against federal prosecution for individuals and entities complying with state law concerning the supervised adult use of psychedelic compounds and require states to enter research partnerships with the Attorney General under the Controlled Substances Act to study the public health outcomes of such state programs.”

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Nguyen concluded by reiterating that the purpose of SJR 10 is to “encourage Congress to do their job and put every state on track to allow folks to access these lifesaving therapies.”

“We don’t have a lot of research in this area, and that’s part of the problem when it comes to cannabis or it comes to the medicines that we’re talking about here,” she said. “You have researchers that want to save lives. They know what the research is showing, and they don’t want their hands held back any further.”

“That’s what SJR does. It will not only save lives, but it also encourages Congress to act,” she said. “It says, ‘we as a state want Congress to act on this so we can act on this, and we can save lives in our state.’”

The committee hearing took place one day after Nevada lawmakers introduced a bill to create a psychedelics therapy pilot program that would provide a treatment alternative for patients with certain mental health conditions.

Assemblymember Max Carter (D), the sponsor, was among several Nevada legislators who participated in a recent psychedelic policy summit and expressed optimism that the state could make progress toward legalizing therapeutic use of the substances in the coming year.

Carter appeared with Nguyen on the panel, hosted by the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines. Both lawmakers were members of a state Psychedelic Medicines Working Group that in December issued a report calling on the legislature to create a program for regulated access to psychedelic-assisted therapy.

In 2023, Nguyen sponsored legislation that would have legalized psilocybin and promoted further research into the drug, as well as encouraged studies of MDMA—but the was significantly scaled back in a Senate committee to examine the use of entheogens “in medicinal, therapeutic, and improved wellness” and develop a future plan for regulated access. It ultimately became the vehicle that created the state psychedelics working group.

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.

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