The sponsor of a bill to create a task force to regulate psychedelics in mental health told the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee on Friday the task force will cost nothing. Senate Bill 166’s goal, however, is the same: Prepare Alaska for use of psychedelics in treating some mental illnesses like post traumatic stress disorder.
Sen. Forrest Dunbar, who is pushing the use of some psychedelics for mental health treatment, is a member of the committee, and presented the bill to the only two other members who were present on Friday: Sen. Jesse Bjorkman and Sen. Click Bishop. Both Sens. Kelly Merrick and Elvi Gray-Jackson were no-shows.
“Working with the sponsor in the House and the Department, we have change some of the nature of the task force. Now the overriding purpose of the task force is still exactly the same — we are preparing Alaska, hopefully, for what we see as the very likely legalization in the medical context of certain of these substances,” Dunbar said.
The changes that the committee substitute bill now has include dropping the fiscal note (cost of the bill) because instead of being a task force staffed by the Department of Commerce, it would be a legislative task force staffed by those working in the sponsors’ offices. The language also clarifies that the task force is not there to advocate for legalization but to create a regulatory framework in anticipation of federal legalization of some substances.