Louisiana's Act 956 funds FDA-authorized clinical trials of psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA using opioid-settlement dollars — the first multi-substance state psychedelic research program.
Louisiana Senate Bill 43, sponsored by Sen. Patrick McMath, creates a Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Program inside the Louisiana Department of Health's Office of Behavioral Health. The bill passed the Senate 37-0 and the House 97-0 in May 2026. Neither chamber recorded a single no vote. Gov. Jeff Landry neither signed nor vetoed it, so it became law on its own as Act No. 956, taking effect August 1, 2026.
The program's job is to help identify academic health centers to run clinical studies of psychedelic-assisted therapy, with a specific focus on opioid use disorder, co-occurring substance use disorders, and treatment-resistant neurological or mental health conditions.
The program authorizes the state health department to partner with academic institutions on FDA-regulated, DEA-permitted clinical trials of three investigational psychedelic treatments: psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA. For background on each substance, see psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA.
Louisiana is receiving roughly $70 million from the Purdue Pharma and Sackler family national settlement, expected to arrive by mid-2026, plus about $7 million more from settlements with eight secondary and generic opioid manufacturers.5 A 2025 investigation put the state's running total of opioid settlement money collected since 2021 at roughly $100 million. The same investigation found that how much of it had actually reached treatment and prevention programs, versus sitting unspent, was hard for reporters to track down.6
The human toll behind that money has been easing but is still severe. Louisiana's drug-involved overdose deaths fell 31% from 2023 to 2024, continuing a decline from the 2021 to 2022 peak, when the state averaged about four opioid deaths a day. By 2024 that had come down to roughly two deaths a day, still nearly 15 people a week.7 Act 956's opioid use disorder focus sits directly inside that still-open public-health gap, even as the raw numbers improve.
Act 956 is funded through Louisiana's share of the national opioid litigation settlements, the same pool of money many states are using for addiction treatment and prevention, instead of general tax revenue. That funding source is also the political logic of the bill: it frames psychedelic-assisted therapy research as an opioid-crisis response tool rather than a standalone drug-policy measure.
Sen. McMath made that link explicit while pushing the bill. He noted that "a lot of those [settlement] funds, in fact, the vast majority of those funds, have yet to be spent." His pitch to colleagues was straightforward. Louisiana already has an obligated pool of opioid-crisis money sitting unused, and directing a slice of it toward psychedelic-assisted therapy research for opioid use disorder falls squarely inside what those settlement dollars are meant to fund.
This distinguishes Louisiana's approach from Texas's SB 2308, which draws on a dedicated state appropriation matched by private money, and from Colorado's HB 26-1325, which runs through the state's general Behavioral Health Administration budget.
Under Act 956, Louisiana participates in a national consortium for psychedelic research and drug development instead of running trials on its own. If a therapy studied through this consortium reaches FDA approval, revenue tied to the resulting intellectual property is shared across the consortium, with a portion specifically earmarked back to Louisiana.
The program's stated focus is opioid use disorder, co-occurring substance use disorders, and treatment-resistant mental health conditions, the population Louisiana's opioid-settlement funds are earmarked to serve. Academic institutions collaborate on trial design and delivery. The state health department oversees compliance with FDA and DEA requirements. In practice, that means enrollment happens through the partnering academic health center's own trial-recruitment process. There is no state waitlist and no public application filed directly with the Department of Health.
This matches the substances' current research profile. Ibogaine and MDMA are both studied primarily for addiction and trauma-related conditions (see ibogaine for opioid addiction and psychedelic therapy for PTSD). Psilocybin's strongest published evidence is in treatment-resistant depression, covered in the psilocybin guide.
Act 956 does not legalize psilocybin, ibogaine, or MDMA in Louisiana. All three remain Schedule I controlled substances under federal law. Louisiana has not decriminalized personal possession the way Colorado and Oregon have for some natural psychedelics. Access exists only for participants enrolled in an authorized clinical trial run through the new program.
Louisiana is the third state in 2025 and 2026, after Texas and Colorado, to fund a state-backed psychedelic research program. It is the only one of the three covering three substances at once instead of a single one.
| Feature | Louisiana (Act 956) | Texas (SB 2308) | Colorado (HB 26-1325) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substances | Psilocybin, ibogaine, MDMA | Ibogaine only | Ibogaine only |
| Funding source | Opioid-settlement dollars | Up to $50M state funds, privately matched | State general appropriation |
| Structure | State agency plus national consortium | Public-private consortium | Behavioral Health Administration pilot sites |
| Existing access program? | No | No | Yes, builds on Prop 122's licensed centers |
| End goal | FDA-approved drug via consortium | FDA-approved drug, nationwide | Add ibogaine to the regulated state program |
No. Louisiana SB 43, now Act No. 956, creates a state-run Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Program that funds FDA- and DEA-authorized clinical trials of psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA. Outside an approved trial, all three remain Schedule I controlled substances under federal law. They stay illegal to possess or use in Louisiana.
SB 43, sponsored by Sen. Patrick McMath, passed the Louisiana Senate 37-0 and the House 97-0 in May 2026, and became law as Act No. 956 without Gov. Jeff Landry's signature. It took effect August 1, 2026 and creates a Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Program inside the Louisiana Department of Health's Office of Behavioral Health, funded by the state's opioid-settlement money.
Act 956 is funded through Louisiana's share of national opioid-settlement dollars instead of general tax revenue. That ties the program directly to the state's opioid-crisis response.
Louisiana law lets a bill passed by the legislature become law without the governor's signature if he neither signs nor vetoes it within the constitutional window. Gov. Jeff Landry took that route with SB 43. Public reporting has not detailed his specific reasoning.
Only inside an FDA-authorized clinical trial run through the new program's academic-institution partnerships. Act 956 does not create walk-in access. It funds research aimed at treatment-resistant mental health conditions and substance use disorders, mainly opioid use disorder.
Louisiana's program works only through FDA-authorized trials. Search active studies and check where each substance stands in your state.
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