Minnesota Rep. Wants Task Force to Explore Legalizing Psychedelics as Mental Health Treatment

A Minnesota state representative is proposing creating a task force focusing on using psychedelics to treat mental illnesses, KIMT News reports. The taskforce would focus on LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin and make recommendations on how to legalize the substances responsibly for medical use.

State Rep. Andy Smith (D) told KIMT that the psychedelics “have incredible potential to help people who are suffering from depression and at a much cheaper cost.”  

“Unfortunately, most of these drugs kind of got wrapped around the war on drugs in the 1980s and so there’s a lot of antiquated laws that are stimming both the research and allowing these drugs to be used in treatment. The goal of the taskforce is to see how we can roll back those regulations well and responsibly.” — Smith to KIMT 

Smith added that “Antidepressants are expensive . . . and these drugs you can usually take them much cheaper.” 

The task force proposal is included in a measure being considered by the chamber in a Health, Finance, and Policy bill. The House is expected to vote on the legislation later this month or early next month, the report says.