State lawmakers plan to introduce a new bill allowing for the regulated use of psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes in the upcoming legislative session that starts in January.
Lawmakers had planned to consider the Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Services Act for discussion only in the Assembly Health Committee last week but that bill — the Assembly version of legislation introduced by Senate President Nick Scutari in June 2022 — was pulled from the agenda.
“It’s legislation that is currently in progress. Advocates have been meeting privately. They’ve been meeting with sponsors,” said Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. (D-Burlington), a primary sponsor of the bill. “And it was really mostly at the behest of the advocates that the bill not be heard at this time because there is significant modifications to the legislation that will need to be undertaken.”
Advocates, health care professionals and nonprofit leaders, along with a growing body of research, point to the potential effectiveness of psilocybin in the treatment of depression and alcohol-use disorder, among other mental health and addiction issues. A report published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2022 said that the “substantial” antidepressant effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy may last for at least a year following “acute intervention” in some patients.
“The brain appears to be more flexible, which makes sense that people are psychologically viewing their problems from different perspectives,” Dr. Matthew Johnson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said of psilocybin’s effects. “They tend to reevaluate life priorities. They tend to … have insights into their own issues and that leads to changes in the way they’re living their daily lives.”
The bill lawmakers had planned to discuss last week aimed to regulate the production and use of psilocybin for behavioral health care, to decriminalize its production, dispensing and use by people who are over 21 years old and to expunge past and pending offenses involving psilocybin. Scutari did not return messages seeking comment on his bill.
There is still concern among advocates and some lawmakers about how the bill is written, which prompted work on the new legislation they promise to unveil in January. All bills that do not pass before the end of this legislative session must be reintroduced.
“There was also concern that this effort really be couched very firmly in the medical community … much in the same way as was done with medical marijuana,” said Conaway of the planned changes to the bill. “It is a treatment, an alternative treatment, that people will use when other treatments fail to work.”
Advocates and state officials across the country have pointed to the potential benefits of using psilocybin to address mental health and addiction issues.
“The research is really highlighting that … psilocybin may be beneficial for not just trauma, anxiety, depression (and) addiction, but also for an entire range of other issues — grief, end-of-life anxiety, race-based trauma — and so many other possible supported uses,” said Angela E. Allbee with the Oregon Health Authority.
Oregon was the first state in the country to implement and regulate legal psilocybin services.
As of Nov. 27, Oregon has issued 177 facilitator licenses, six manufacturer licenses, 18 service center licenses and two laboratory licenses for psilocybin, according to Allbee, the manager of the authority’s psilocybin services section.
The manufacturer licenses are for the locations where the hallucinogenic mushrooms are cultivated and processed before being tested at licensed labs. Once those results are input into a product tracking system and the product passes testing, then that product can be sold to a licensed service center, according to Allbee.
The licensed service centers are the only locations where a client can purchase psilocybin products and the only place where they can consume psilocybin products.
This all happens during an “administration session” with a “licensed facilitator,” Allbee said. The licensed facilitator does not touch or handle any psilocybin products but is there to provide services, which include three separate “sessions.”
There’s a “preparation session” with a client to determine if a person should receive the psilocybin services, which includes “safety and support planning,” informed consent and a client’s Bill of Rights, according to Allbee. Once the client and the facilitator agree that the client is ready to move forward to an administration session they would buy psilocybin and consume it on site at a licensed service center, under the supervision and support of the facilitator, Allbee said.
The third part involves an “integration session,” which allows a client to check back in with the facilitator and be connected to other community resources and peer support networks, among other services. The facilitator also has to check in with a client 72 hours after consuming the psilocybin, according to Allbee.
“One of the common themes that I hear from people who are using psilocybin and other psychedelics is that they treat what’s behind their depression and anxiety, rather than put a Band-Aid on the symptoms that they’re experiencing,” said Dr. Caroline Dorsen, the associate dean at Rutgers University School of Nursing.
“It is a treatment, an alternative treatment, that people will use when other treatments fail to work” — Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr.
The use of the drug for therapeutic purposes has also found support among veterans who may be struggling with mental health conditions. The U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs heard testimony earlier this month from veterans and nonprofit leaders on the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy as a form of suicide prevention.
“This is just another way of helping our veterans, and as long as it’s done correctly and done very, very [carefully], you could really make a difference in veterans mental health,” said Michael Boll, the president of the New Jersey Veterans Network.
Meanwhile at the federal level, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an updated version of a bill in March that aims to move MDMA (Ecstasy) and psilocybin from Schedule I drugs — substances considered to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse — to Schedule II.
This move, with oversight from the Drug Enforcement Administration, would allow for more research to be done on the drugs and for patients with terminal or life-threatening conditions to have access to the drugs.
“The big question for me is to ensure that this therapy is firmly based and grounded in a medical model of care. And that we make sure that people who avail themselves of it are appropriate candidates for the use of psilocybin and the advancement of their healthcare,” said Conaway.
“Advocates are going to have to do their work, just as the advocates around the marijuana question did their work, and we’ll see how the public responds to that,” Conaway added. “And as the public moves, I think you’ll see lawmakers move as well.”
As a multimedia mental health reporter for NJ Spotlight News, Bobby focuses on underserved and rural communities throughout New Jersey via a partnership with Report for America. He earned a master’s in journalism from New York University in May 2022 and completed internships at The Scranton Times Tribune, his hometown newspaper, and New Mexico In Depth before joining NJ Spotlight News. Follow him on Twitter at @bobby_brier or send him an email at brierb@njspotlightnews.org.
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