Psychedelic therapy program to launch in Utah

Starting in May, Utah hospitals will be allowed to administer psilocybin and MDMA to select patients under a new pilot program, after Gov. Spencer Cox allowed a bill authorizing the move to become law without his signature.

For the next three years, any privately owned nonprofit Utah hospital system with at least 15 hospitals, or any higher education medical program, will be permitted to administer the two psychedelic substances to patients for “behavioral health treatment,” Marijuana Moment reported.

But the temporary program will sunset in 2027, and any hospitals that take advantage of the treatment options will also have to submit written reports to lawmakers by mid-2026 that detail which drugs were used and what the treatment outcomes were.

The bill establishing the pilot program sailed through both chambers of the legislature, but Cox gave it tepid support and chose to let it become law without signing it.

“I am generally supportive of scientific efforts to discover the benefits of new substances that can relieve suffering,” Cox wrote in a letter to lawmakers, Marijuana Moment reported, though he added he was “disappointed” that some unspecified policy recommendations were not included in the bill.