A city councilmember in Atlanta has proposed a measure that could open the door for both psilocybin and ketamine treatments.
The councilmember, Liliana Bakhtiari, believes that health plans for city workers should include the treatments, which research has shown to be effective in combating mental health disorders such as PTSD.
“We should be offering our employees — and especially our first responders, who are expected to be superhuman — the same amount of grace and providing them with a tool set to essentially overcome this issue,” Bakhtiari said in an interview with Axios.
Per Axios, the proposal “tasks the city’s HR department with studying the pros and cons of ketamine and psilocybin to treat mental health issues and whether the employee health plan could cover the treatments.”
The outlet adds that “ketamine can be taken under the care of a psychiatrist” in Georgia, and that Bakhtiari “says she has used ketamine therapy to treat past trauma,” and that “some sessions can cost roughly $350 out of pocket.”
As a councilmember, Bakhtiari has been a vocal champion of the treatment and drug reform.
In 2022, Bakhtiari introduced a resolution that would have “formally request[ed] that police make it ‘the lowest law enforcement priority’ to investigate or arrest people for ‘planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing Entheogenic Plants, Fungi, and Spores or plant compounds,’” Marijuana Moment reported at the time.
With a growing body of research on the efficacy of psychedelics as a mental health treatment, more lawmakers across the country have pushed for reform.
Earlier this year in Vermont, lawmakers passed a measure to set up a working group to look into psychedelics and their application in therapy.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a similar bill into law earlier this month. The measure will create the “Task Force …
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Author: Thomas Edward / High Times
