A Texas House committee took testimony on Monday about two bills designed to prepare the state to provide swift access to therapeutic psychedelics in the event of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
One measure, HB 4014, would establish a state-backed study, in collaboration with university researchers, on the use of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders such as PTSD and depression. It would direct officials at the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to make subsequent recommendations “to ensure patient access to psychedelic therapies” following FDA approval.
The other bill, HB 4813, would dictate that substances reclassified under federal law be similarly controlled under state law.
Members of the House Committee on Public Health heard from sponsors and public commenters at Monday’s hearing but did not take action on either bill.
Supporters said the proposals would work together to minimize delays to military veterans and others who stand to benefit from the potentially life-saving therapy.
“This is going to happen. This is coming,” Rep. John Bucy III (D), sponsor of HB 4014, said of what many described as impending FDA approval of psychedelic therapy. “This is the study bill to make sure we’re ready when it comes to implement.”
Bucy’s measure would establish a state-backed study into the use of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders, such as PTSD and depression, in consultation with researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy.
The project would include an assessment of clinical trials and published literature into the efficacy of psychedelics—specifically MDMA, psilocybin and ketamine—as a treatment PTSD, depression and other mental health disorders.
Officials would also review FDA actions around the therapies, evaluate treatment guidelines and make recommendations to eventually ensure legal access for Texas patients.
In a subsequent report, due by December 1, 2026, DSHS would need to “recommend legislative or other actions necessary to ensure patient access to psychedelic therapies following approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration, including considerations of provider availability, affordability, accessibility, training and licensure, and other regulatory requirements.”
A companion bill, SB 3005, from Sen. Cesar Blanco (D), has been referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, but it has not yet received a hearing.
The House committee on Monday also heard HB 4813, from Rep. Tom Oliverson (R), which is aimed at minimizing delay at the state level if and when FDA approves a new drug, such as psilocybin, for treatment.
“All we’re seeking to do is to amend statute to accelerate that process for these very promising compounds that have been shown to be very effective in these conditions.” Oliverson told committee members.
He noted that psilocybin and MDMA are both in Phase 3 clinical trials “and are likely to be approved by the FDA, you know, any day now.”
“What we’re saying in this bill,” he continued, “is as soon as the FDA lowers the penalty class from [Schedule I] to something lower—meaning that providers can prescribe it—that…the DSHS Commissioner will immediately reclassify that drug as soon as is humanly possible.”
Oliverson, an anesthesiologist, said the goal is to “avoid an unnecessary, lengthy delay” to access to psychedelic therapies in Texas in the event the federal government approves them.
“As a doctor, I’m just telling you my own personal feeling is I want people to have access to drugs that work,” he said, “and I want them to have access to it as soon as possible.”
Testifying in support of the measure was Lynnette Averill, a Baylor College of Medicine professor and director of research at the school’s Menninger Clinic.
Averill said the proposal would build on a measure passed in Texas in 2021 to study psychedelics as a possible treatment for veterans with PTSD, which she said helped make the state “a pioneer in this space.”
“What a bill like this would do,” she said, “is really continue build on the landmark move that Texas made in the 2021 legislative session.”
“We know that there are often significant regulatory delays [and] bureaucratic delays, and ultimately what that translates to, in this case, is loss of life,” Averill told the panel. “We know that that is the reality. We are in a mental health crisis unlike anything we have dealt with previously, and we have to acknowledge that and treat these interventions as the life saving potential that they are, and to do everything in our power to be ready to provide these at a scalable level as soon as we are able.”
Rep. Mike Olcott (R) said during discussion on the bill that he was wondering if there was any way to adjust the bill such that it “doesn’t cede our sovereignty” by automatically following the federal government’s lead. Perhaps, he suggested, the bill could require a prompt state-level review following federal rescheduling action, for example within 30 days.
“Because that sounds like it’s the holdup,” Olcott said. “It’s simply a matter of the timing, the convenience, the logistics. But if the requirement was for the people that actually were to take it off here in Texas to meet within a month—or whatever time you think would be short enough—to where it didn’t automatically cede…the same response, necessarily, to the feds.”
Meanwhile in Texas last week, an appellate court sided with the state in its lawsuit challenging the city of San Marcos’s implementation of a local marijuana decriminalization law approved by voters.
The state Fifteenth Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that denied a temporary injunction to prevent the law from being enforced, effectively invalidating the cannabis reform measure approved by 81 percent of voters in 2022. It’s marks a setback for activists who’ve led the charge to enact local marijuana policy changes through the ballot, many of which have been contested by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
Despite ongoing litigation related to past decriminalization ordinances, however, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
Separately, the Texas Senate late last month approved a bill that cannabis advocates and stakeholders said would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, prohibiting consumable products derived from the plant that contain any amount of THC.
That, as well as another measure from Rep. Joe Moody (D) to decriminalize cannabis statewide, is one of the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. Various other measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession and adjust the state’s existing medical marijuana laws, among others.
Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, passed the House on an 87–59 vote but later died in a Senate committee.
The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals during the two previous legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the lieutenant governor.
A Texas House committee took testimony on Monday about two bills designed to prepare the state to provide swift access to therapeutic psychedelics in the event of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One measure, HB 4014, would establish a state-backed study, in collaboration with university researchers, on the use of psychedelics Read More
