Virginia Bill That Would Support Investigation Into Psychedelics For Veterans’ Mental Health Sails Through First Senate Committee

A Senate committee in Virginia has advanced legislation that would fund clinical trials involving veterans and “breakthrough therapies” as designated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA.

Members of the Senate Education and Health Committee voted 13–1 on Thursday to sign off on the proposal—SB 1101, from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D)—and refer it to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

The vote came two days after a subcommittee of the Education and Health Committee OK’d favorably reported the psychedelics proposal.

Sen. Barbara Favola (D), who chairs the subcommittee, described the measure to the full committee on Thursday as “a very comprehensive bill” that “paves the way for providing a more comprehensive approach to suicide prevention for veterans.”

“It’s incredibly important, because veterans, as we know, are suffering disproportionately from suicide, and we really don’t have enough knowledge, services or—I would say—counselors in this area,” Favola said.

Sponsor Hashmi, who also chairs the full Education and Health Committee, did not speak in favor of the bill during Thursday’s hearing.

During the earlier subcommittee hearing, on Tuesday, Hashmi called the measure “an effort to address crisis points in mental health as well as the trauma that so many of our veterans are struggling with.”

“What we are hoping to do with this legislation,” Hashmi told members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health’s Subcommittee on Health, “is to establish a dedicated fund for breakthrough therapies for veteran suicide prevention that would support clinical trials, patient access, as well as training for healthcare professionals.”

While the text of the legislation, dubbed the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Act, doesn’t explicitly mention psychedelics, Hashmi noted at Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing that FDA has granted MDMA status as a breakthrough therapy for PTSD and designated psilocybin as a breakthrough therapy for certain depressive disorders.

SB 1101, is an updated version of a similar proposal, SB 229, that last year passed out of the Senate but didn’t make it out of the House.

The new bill references the FDA breakthrough therapy designation and the federal Right to Try Act—intended to give patients with terminal conditions the opportunity to try investigational medications that have not been approved for general use—as well as a number of conditions that research shows psychedelics may help treat, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, major depressive disorder and traumatic brain injury.

It notes that those conditions “disproportionately impact veterans and significantly increase the risk of suicide”—a point Hashmi also made in her comments Tuesday.

“Veteran suicide, sadly, remains a crisis with rates that are significantly higher than our civilian population,” she said. “Nationally, an estimated 17 to 44 veterans die by suicide or by substance-related deaths every day. That’s an unacceptable number to us.”

Alison Messick, chief programs officer at the Navy SEAL Foundation, testified in favor of the bill earlier this week and told lawmakers that the proposal “offers an opportunity…not only to mitigate suicide risk, as Sen. Hashmi has mentioned, but also to improve the overall quality of life for our veterans.”

“By passing this legislation, Virginia can build the infrastructure needed to support this groundbreaking research,” Messick said. “Virginia has consistently shown up for its nearly 700,000 veterans, standing as a leader in providing resources and support. This legislation is an opportunity to build on that legacy and deliver another meaningful advancement in care for those who have sacrificed so much.”

No public testimony was heard Thursday by the full Education and Health Committee.

Advocates at Reason for Hope—which Hashmi has credited with helping craft the proposal—and the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition said earlier this week that the bill would help Virginia lead the nation in addressing veteran suicides through “innovative, research-backed treatment options.”

“By investing in Breakthrough Therapies, Virginia establishes a roadmap for other states to follow, directly improving outcomes for those who have served our country,” the groups said in a factsheet about the legislation.

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Hashmi has for years been an advocate of expanding legal access to substances like psilocybin to treat depression and PTSD. In 2021, for example, co-hosted an event with the advocacy group Decriminalize Nature Virginia to bring attention to psychedelic-assisted therapy.

“One thing that has intrigued me in the process of learning myself is the kind of tremendous research that is available that demonstrates that these particular plant based medicines have the capacity to heal, to help and assist people in ways that other medicines often cannot do,” Hashmi said at the time.

The following year, Hashmi and another Democrat, Del. Dawn Adams, introduced measures to decriminalize the possession of psychedelics among adults 21 and older, reducing the penalty from a Class 5 felony to a $100 civil fine. Money collected would have gone to the state’s Drug Offender Assessment and Treatment Fund, which supports substance misuse treatment programs and drug courts. That legislation failed to advance out of committee that session.

Hashmi’s new proposal would not immediately change state law around psychedelics or other substances designated by FDA as breakthrough therapies. Rather, it would provide funding to clinical trials and other research in an effort to lay the groundwork for further reform.

Money in the so-called Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Fund would also pay for research into optimal methods of treatment as well as safety and efficacy.

The fund would also pay for the establishment of a compassionate use program “including data collection and analysis” as well as “patient access pilot programs,” although the bill’s text doesn’t cover specifically how those programs might eventually function. It does, however, note that if FDA therapies are rescheduled or descheduled under federal law, the state’s Board of Pharmacy would have regulatory control over the substances.

Reason for Hope and the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition said that provision would help with “ensuring swift availability of lifesaving treatments once federally approved,” adding that the bill’s intended funding for research and training “will ensured a skilled workforce ready to deliver high-quality care.”

A study last year estimated that as many as 6 in 10 people currently receiving treatment for depression in the U.S. could qualify for psilocybin-assisted therapy if the treatment were approved by FDA.

Meanwhile, with Virginia’s 30-day legislative session now underway, a separate Senate committee this week advanced a proposal to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana sales in the state. Even if the legal sales legislation is passed by lawmakers, however, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has signaled he’ll again veto the reform as his did with a similar proposal last year.

That measure, SB 970, is one of a pair of bills introduced earlier this month by Sen. Aaron Rouse (D) and Del. Paul Krizek (D). Last year the two lawmakers presented competing versions of a legal sales framework, ultimately arriving at a compromise that passed the legislature but was vetoed by Youngkin.

Since the bill’s introduction, Youngkin in his recent State of the Commonwealth address emphasized that he has no interest in cooperating with lawmakers to legalize retail marijuana sales, claiming that doing so would hurt children, worsen mental health and increase violent crime.

Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults are already legal in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in 2021. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor’s office later that year, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory framework for retail sales. Since then, illicit stores have sprung up to meet consumer demand.

Also this week, lawmakers introduced legislation reflecting a number of changes recommended by the Virginia State Crime Commission, including a plan to seal all criminal records pertaining to marijuana offenses for simple possession and revise the state’s record-sealing process around cannabis paraphernalia crimes.

Following the governor’s veto of the legislature-passed bill last session, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which focuses on electing Democrats to state legislatures, slammed Youngkin for his marijuana reform opposition, saying that he “continues to hold Virginia back and block the progress made by Democrats in control of the legislature.”

The governor last year also greeted less controversial marijuana reforms coldly. Earlier in March, for example, he vetoed a separate proposal that would have prevented the state from using marijuana alone as evidence of child abuse or neglect despite the measure winning unanimous or near-unanimous approval in votes on the Senate floor.

After that action, Del. Rae Cousins (D), the bill’s sponsor, accused the governor of “turning his back on the needs of our children and neglecting their well-being by encouraging the courts to move forward with unnecessary family separations.”

Separately, last April, Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Shelton said her agency had received a sufficient number of reports of minors getting sick from cannabis products that the commonwealth would create a “special surveillance system” to track the issue.

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