The bill establishes a Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Pilot Program at the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC), within available appropriations, to provide qualified patients with funding needed to receive MDMA (i.e., “Molly” or “ecstasy”) -assisted or psilocybin- assisted therapy (hereinafter “psychedelic-assisted therapy”) as part of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved expanded access program. The pilot program ends when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) approves MDMA and psilocybin for medical use. (MDMA is a synthetic psychoactive drug and psilocybin occurs naturally in some mushrooms. Both act as serotonin receptor agonists and MDMA also acts as a reuptake inhibitor of serotonin and dopamine.)

Under the bill, “qualified patients” include Connecticut residents who are veterans, retired first responders, or direct health care workers.

Additionally, the bill:

1. establishes, within available appropriations, a Qualified Patients for Approved Treatment Sites Fund (PAT Fund) administered by CMHC to give grants to certain qualified providers to provide psychedelic-assisted therapy under the pilot program;
2. establishes an 11-member Connecticut Psychedelic Treatment Advisory Board within DMHAS to advise the department on various issues related to psychedelic-assisted therapy;
3. requires the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) to adopt DEA’s controlled substances schedule for MDMA and psilocybin if DEA approves them for medical use and either reclassifies or unschedules them; and
4. requires DCP to consider adopting nonbinding federal guidelines on psychedelic-assisted therapy and allow for written comments from the advisory board and the public.