Gov. Mike Parson’s administration is preparing to award up to $5 million in grants to study whether psilocybin mushrooms can help treat painkiller addiction.
In a memo posted Monday, officials at the Missouri Department of Mental Health are asking vendors to provide input into opioid-related research to assist the agency in developing competitive grants to study whether mushrooms can help quell the overdose crisis.
“This (request) is to allow the opportunity for vendors to provide us with ideas, suggestions, and other relevant information as it relates specifically to opioid related research and its ability to treat addiction of opioids,” the memo notes.
Responses are due Oct. 25.
The proposal comes after Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature approved spending $5 million of the state’s share of the national opioid settlement for competitive grants to research universities for opioid-related research.
Initially, the House version of the budget had sought $20 million to study whether psilocybin mushrooms were legitimate treatments for mental health disorders. The Senate spending plan initially rejected the proposal, but last-minute negotiations set the spending level at $5 million.
The proposal by the department follows a push in 2023 by the House to launch a study into the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelic drugs, including those contained in so-called “magic mushrooms.”
The bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Houx, R-Warrensburg, would have authorized a study between the state and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to determine whether psilocybin, ketamine and other alternative therapies could help treat various mental conditions among military veterans.
The measure was not taken up by the Senate at the time.
According to the department, more than 24,500 Missourians have died due to an overdose during the past 20 years. Of the 2,180 Missourians who died from an overdose in 2022, more than 70% involved opioids.
The $5 million outlay is part of more than $50 billion in settlement funds delivered to thousands of state and local governments from pharmaceutical companies that flooded the nation with addictive painkillers.
Among companies that have paid into Missouri’s settlement funds are McKinsey & Co., Mallinckrodt, CVS, Walgreens and Kroger.
State and local governments in Missouri could receive up to $900 million over the next 18 years if full settlement participation is achieved, the department said.
Among questions being asked by the department are how research would be conducted and how long a research project could be expected to last.
In addition, it asks potential research institutions whether they have the ability to pay back their portion of the grants if the administrator of the national opioid settlement determines that research into the use of psilocybin is not an approved use of the funds.
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