2023 hawai’i legislative session RECAP

Deep gratitude for this ever growing community of mental health advocates who are helping to shift perceptions of psychedelic healing in Hawaii. This legislative session was without a doubt our most successful and I am proud to announce that despite the last minute death of our Beneficial Treatments Advisory Council Bill, we will be launching this task force within the Office of Wellness and Resilience this Summer in order to prepare for our campaign of Regulated Therapeutic Access in the 2024 Session.

How did we both win and lose then?

Legislative session is always a blur and it is hard to know when and why bills die during conference. What we know is that the level of quality of testimony is what carried our initiative into the final hours of session and it is absolutely what convinced Office of Wellness Director Tia Hartsock that this task-force was a worthy pursuit regardless of the Legislature.

So what’s next?

During July and August we will be working directly with Director Hartsock to convene the relevant stakeholders regarding a regulated therapeutic access program in Hawaii. These stakeholders will include medical professionals, trained psychedelic integration coaches, dispensaries, community mental health advocates, and more.

Why a task force?

In order to effectively advocate for a regulated therapeutic access program, we’ve learned that it is critical to bring all stakeholders: beneficiaries, clinicians, and regulators to the table to get on the same page about what this program will look like and how it will roll out. Even more, as we watch the Oregon program roll out, we want to preemptively solve for some of the problems that have emerged.

The success of this session wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing Advisory Board members who attended every hearing and brought clarity to the science and the benefits of psychedelic healing.  We are also deeply grateful for our funders who keep our small organization running.

Support clarity project

We’ll be launching a $30,000 session fundraising campaign this fall to ensure we have the lobbying firepower we need to win. Stay tuned, engaged, and if you can DONATE to support this movement.