KFOR:
House Bill 3414 is striving to save the lives of veterans suffering with PTSD by allowing Oklahoma research centers to study the therapeutic effects of psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
“It’s a game changer,” said Rep. Logan Philips of district 24, and a coauthor of the bill. “We’re talking waking up going to bed with ideas of wanting to kill yourself, waking up with them being gone. It is a light switch.”
The bill would allow Oklahoma universities to conduct clinical trials on the drug, and would “provide certain exemptions from criminal and civil penalties.”
Rep. Phillips said the bill is of the “utmost importance” because according to him, the suicide rate in Oklahoma’s veteran community is “astronomical.”
He believes psilocybin could be the answer to significantly decreasing that rate. A veteran himself, Rep. Phillips said he can relate to the struggles veterans face and wants to do all he can to help them.