The TREAT institute will allocate $5 billion to fund research, train hundreds of thousands of mental healthcare providers, and ensure access to these life-saving therapies

The research will be thorough and rigorous, to identify the safest, most effective, and appropriate uses of these treatments.

TREAT will not legalize or decriminalize these medicines directly. It will provide funding to research their safety and effectiveness to treat depression, suicidality, addiction, pain, and more. The goal is FDA approval, enabling national access to these treatments and making them eligible for insurance reimbursement. Once approved by the FDA, these medicines will be administered by a licensed therapist in a supervised setting.

The TREAT Institute will be funded by the sale of bonds. When Californians pass a bond initiative, they give the state permission to borrow money to pay for the project outlined in the initiative (like school renovations, for example). The state does this by selling bonds to investors. This raises funds in a way that minimizes state costs and delays repayment. This is NOT a tax increase.

We believe in working collaboratively with researchers, therapists, psychedelic-assisted therapy specialists, religious leaders, indigenous healers, community leaders, industry experts, patient advocates, and other knowledge keepers. They will guide our mission, emphasizing ethics, equal access to care, and safety.

California spends about $61 billion on opioid addiction each year. If psychedelic therapy helps just 10% of those struggling with this addiction, the state would save nearly $6 billion every year, which is far more than the total investment in TREAT. Imagine what our state could accomplish with these savings.

Members of the TREAT California team played a crucial role in passing the California ballot initiative to fund stem cell research in 2004. This created our state stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

The work of CIRM led to FDA approval for two treatments and nine breakthrough treatments, so far. As a result, California is the world leader in stem cell research, and the agency has generated more than $14 billion for the state.