Hawaii House Of Representatives Passes Bill To Create Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Research Pilot Program

Hawaii’s House of Representatives has approved a bill that would create a two-year pilot program to support clinical research into psychedelic-assisted therapies, including substances such as psilocybin and MDMA.

Lawmakers on the House floor voted 44-5 to pass the legislation, SB 1042, on Tuesday. The Senate already approved the proposal, but it now returns to that chamber for consideration of amendments made in the House.

For example, the structure of the bill was revised in a House committee to create a two-year pilot program rather than establish the program through a state special fund. Changes also moved the proposed system under the Office of Wellness and Resilience (OWR) rather than the state Department of Health.

As approved by the Senate last month, by contrast, the proposal would establish a state “mental health emerging therapies special fund,” which could be used to subsidize clinical trials, establish public-private research partnerships and eventually develop state programs around patient access for “compassionate use.”

The House-approved pilot program would be funded through a million-dollar annual investment from the legislature, which could be matched in private funds. Overall, that could mean $4 million in total funding over the span of the pilot.

As defined in the bill, “emerging therapies” refers to psychedelic or entactogenic substances that are either approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or under Hawaii state law as well as compounds undergoing FDA-approved clinical trials.

“Compassionate use,” meanwhile, would mean “treating patients suffering from terminal or life-threatening conditions,” including treatment-resistant mental health conditions.

Though the bill doesn’t list specific conditions, a report from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which previously advanced the plan, mentions depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD as “widespread and affecting millions worldwide and many in the State’s community.”

A report from a second Senate panel that approved the bill, the Committee on Ways and Means, says that “the special fund established and research supported by this measure will help facilitate patient access to innovative mental health treatments.”

Lawmakers have received hundreds of pages of written testimony from state agencies, advocacy groups and interested individuals as the legislation has progressed.

OWR, which would be responsible for overseeing the psychedelics research initiative, said the bill “provides an important opportunity to create a pathway for those in need to have access to innovative and potentially life-saving treatments for trauma and mental health challenges, within the context of closely monitored clinical research.”

Veterans advocates, such as the organization Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), have also voiced support for the measure, noting that, while “other states have taken important steps, Hawaii has the opportunity to take the next giant leap in psychedelic leadership.”

“This would be a bold initiative—one that ensures veterans can access these therapies now while also contributing to the broader national conversation on how to best integrate psychedelic treatments into our healthcare system,” the group testified at a previous hearing. “Hawaii could lead the way, setting a precedent for the future of psychedelic medicine.”

Meanwhile, a Hawaii bill approved this week by the Senate would allow healthcare providers to recommend cannabis to treat any condition they believe it would benefit. Among other changes it would make to the existing system, the would redefine “debilitating medical condition” to mean “any condition determined by the certifying physician or advanced practice registered nurse to be appropriate for the medical use of cannabis.”

That change would open the door to wider access for patients who might have conditions that stand to benefit from medical marijuana but whose ailments haven’t been specifically recognized by state officials.

Lawmakers also recently sent a bill to the governor that would help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses.

That measure, HB 132, from Rep. David Tarnas (D), would expedite expungements happening through a pilot program signed into law last year by Gov. Josh Green (D). Specifically, it would remove the distinction between marijuana and other Schedule V drugs for the purposes of the expungement program.

The bill’s proponents say the current wording of the law forces state officials to comb through thousands of criminal records manually in order to identify which are eligible for expungement under the pilot program.

Separately, Hawaii’s Senate back in February narrowly defeated a separate proposal that would have increased fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of criminal charges. The body voted 12–11 against the decriminalization measure, SB 319, from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D).

Had the measure become law, it would have increased the amount of cannabis decriminalized in Hawaii from the current 3 grams up to 15 grams. Possession of any amount of marijuana up to that 15-gram limit would have been classified as a civil violation, punishable by a fine of $130.

A separate Senate bill that would have legalized marijuana for adults, meanwhile, stalled for the session. That measure, SB 1613, had yet to make it out of its current committee despite a legislative deadline last month.

While advocates feel there’s sufficient support for the legalization proposal in the Senate, it’s widely believed that House lawmakers would ultimately scuttle the measure, as they did last month with a legalization companion bill, HB 1246.

Some observers pointed out that there may still be legislative maneuvers available to revive the Senate legalization bill this session, though it’s unclear whether lawmakers will pursue them.

Last session, a Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House.

The House vote to stall the bill came just days after approval from a pair of committees at a joint hearing. Ahead of that hearing, the panels received nearly 300 pages of testimony, including from state agencies, advocacy organizations and members of the public.

Meanwhile, legislation is advancing this session to allow healthcare providers to recommend cannabis to treat any condition they believe it would benefit, instead of only those maladies on a specific list, as is the case under current law.

Separately, the House Committee on Labor in January unanimously voted to advance legislation that would protect state-registered medical marijuana patients from discrimination in the workplace. That bill, HB 325, has not yet been taken up in the Senate.

This past fall, regulators solicited proposals to assess the state’s current medical marijuana program—and also sought to estimate demand for recreational sales if the state eventually moves forward with adult-use legalization. Some read the move as a sign the regulatory agency saw a need to prepare to the potential reform.

Hawaii was the first U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana through its legislature, passing a law in 2000.

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