As more than a quarter of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are resistant to standard care, Utah is looking to expand treatment options to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy — an alternative medical approach that combines regulated psychedelics with guided therapy — as supporters point to high success rates and the treatment’s effectiveness.
HB390 is sponsored by Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, and received unanimous approval from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday. The bill would authorize the Huntsman Mental Health Institute to conduct a clinical study on psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD, expanding treatment options for one of Utah’s more vulnerable populations.
“Utah has one of the best research environments in the country, and I think that this is an opportunity to really get at some of the answers,” Daily-Provost told the committee. “We can get some meaningful data to move forward for this incredibly at-risk population, but also become the gold standard and a model for other states to follow and hopefully, move carefully forward.”
As Utah’s veteran suicide rate is 50% higher than the national average, Daily-Provost thinks Utah can become a national leader in psychedelic research. In 2024, Utah medically legalized two psychedelic compounds — psilocybin and MDMA — in controlled settings, creating a research program that has since “been in a holding pattern,” she said.
Regulations make it difficult for researchers to access some psychedelics, as the compounds are still federally illegal. This year’s bill aims to reduce those barriers — creating a controlled research program with strict guidelines adhering to federal law — while also legalizing dimethyltryptamine, a potent psychedelic known as DMT.
“(HB390) authorizes a tightly scoped, time-limited research trial under explicit legislative guardrails, alongside oversight … to generate Utah-specific safety and outcomes data,” Dr. Benjamin Lewis, principal investigator for the University of Utah’s Psychedelic Science Initiative, told the committee. “This is not about public access, legalization, clinical rollout or commercialization. This level of regulatory oversight is the highest level possible for a clinical trial.”
Need for regulation
Lewis, whose research as an associate professor of psychiatry focuses on psychedelic-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant patients, emphasized that “cautious, rigorous evaluation and staged evidence development are essential prior to any clinical rollouts.”
“I frequently work directly with U.S. military veterans with PTSD that are hospitalized at our institution, and I can speak firsthand as to the unmet needs for better treatments,” he said. Both Lewis and Daily-Provost emphasized that many people already use psychedelic drugs for self-medication, and the bill takes a step toward expanding treatment options for more effective dosing.
“It’s not in a clinically controlled environment,” Daily-Provost said. “It’s not in conjunction with the therapy that is required under this study, which we think is really key to making sure that the long-term outcomes are positive for the patients.”
Although psilocybin has been proven effective for treating anxiety and depression, The National Center for PTSD says there has been significantly less research into its effect on PTSD. HB390 looks to change that.
Life-changing treatment
Matthew Butler was among those who spoke to the committee. As a retired lieutenant colonel who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces, he referenced his experience with severe PTSD, telling the committee that psychedelics saved his life after traditional treatment didn’t work.
“I can say with absolute certainty that I owe my life, my happiness, my sobriety, my happy marriage, and most of all, the mended relationships with parents, my sister and my daughters, all to that ayahuasca ceremony weekend and the careful and occasional use of other psychedelics,” Butler said.
Ayahuasca, a psychedelic typically consumed as tea that originates in the Amazon Rainforest, is not included in the bill, as Butler emphasized he didn’t access the psychedelic compound in a regulated medical setting.
“The demand is real, the suffering is real, the need is urgent,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of veterans who desperately seek relief from PTSD, depression, addiction and suicidal thoughts are turning to underground, overseas options because safe, regulated care does not exist here at home.”
After passing the House, HB390 now heads to the Senate for consideration.
