The Hawaii Senate approved a bill creating an advisory council to look into possible regulations which would provide access to federal “breakthrough therapies” like psilocybin and MDMA.

The legislation from Rep. Adrian Tam, which previously moved through the House and has since been amended by Senate committees, passed the full chamber without discussion on Tuesday. It now goes back to the House for concurrence. Here’s more: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/hawaii-senate-approves-bill-to-create-psychedelics-advisory-council-to-prepare-for-federal-approval/

The psychedelics space picked up more mainstream coverage this week, this time in The Guardian, where journalist Farrah Jarral took a deep dive into Australia’s recent move to allow psychiatrists to prescribe psilocybin to patients with treatment-resistant depression. Check it out: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/10/the-big-idea-should-doctors-be-able-to-prescribe-psychedelics?CMP=share_btn_tw

Are psychedelics gaining traction in Europe? Carissa Kendall-Windless and Sian Banks of law firm Pinsent Masons recently penned a piece in European Pharmaceutical Review where they discussed the development of psychedelic medicines and the legal and regulatory challenges that must be overcome for psychedelics to become safe and effective treatment options in Europe. Here’s more: https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/article/181261/psychedelic-medicines-europe/

Speaking of Europe, did you know that there’s now evidence that European shamans consumed psychedelics more than 3,000 years ago?

In a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers confirm that chemical signatures in the secreted samples of hair from the Mediterranean island of Menorca provide direct evidence of hallucinogenic drug use in ancient Europe.

Previous studies have only found indirect evidence for the ingestion of mind-altering substances on the continent, in the form of tell-tale chemical traces in residue from ancient containers or as psychoactive plant remains left at ritual sites.

"The findings are an affirmation of the knowledge and use of plants as drugs among prehistoric Europeans," says ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorini, an expert on psychoactive substances.

You can read more about this latest discovery here: https://on.natgeo.com/418zx6O