State Sen. Scott Wiener make a third attempt to legalize the use of magic mushrooms, in California — but this time only in therapeutic settings.
State Sen. Scott Wiener will make a third attempt to legalize the use of psilocybin, colloquially known as magic mushrooms, in California — but this time with a much narrower proposal. Unlike his effort to decriminalize mushrooms last year, he thinks his new plan will survive Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto.
That’s because the new measure unveiled Tuesday, SB1012, co-written by Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Republican Assembly Member Marie Waldron, of Valley Center (San Diego County), is focused on using psychedelics under supervised treatment instead of trying to decriminalize them.
It would enable Californians over 21 to use certain psychedelics in a therapeutic context, “in a safe and controlled environment,” as Wiener put it, under the supervision of a licensed and trained facilitator.
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The measure would not allow the sale, personal possession or use of psychedelics outside of this kind of regulated therapeutic setting.
It would also create a Board of Psychedelic Facilitators under the Department of Consumer Affairs, which would create training programs, ethical standards and regulatory oversight for the use of the drugs.
Wiener said that there is a “massive network in California of psychedelic therapists that are underground. We’re going to bring them above ground.”
If the bill becomes law, supporters expect it will take another 18 to 24 months before Californians could access the treatment through the program.
Psychedelics remain illegal under federal law, but leaders elsewhere have seen the value that psychedelics may have in treating anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, substance abuse and other mental health issues. The Federal Drug Administration has designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” for treatment-resistant depression, a sign that even the federal government recognizes its potential therapeutic value. In June, the agency issued its first guidelines to researchers interested in exploring how they could be used for medical treatments.
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“We are not waiting for the federal government to bless this. We are addressing California’s legal obstacles to those therapies,” Wiener said.
The goal of the legislation is to help the 1 in 3 Californians who reported suffering from anxiety and depression, according to a February 2023 KFF study, and who haven’t been helped by traditional approaches.
“Our current approach to mental health has been criminalization and lack of access,” Waldron said Monday. She emphasized that the legislation “does not legalize psychedelics.”
Wiener recast his approach shortly after what he described Monday as Newsom’s “thoughtful” veto last year of his legislation that would have decriminalized psychedelics.
Newsom said he was supportive of “new opportunities to address mental health through psychedelic medicines like those addressed in this bill,” and thought this was an “exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it” before asking for legislation this year that would include “therapeutic guidelines.”
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Wiener said that he has kept the Newsom administration updated on the new legislation.
Wiener said he doesn’t think election year politics will derail the bill, with conservatives potentially spinning the measure as another example of Californians wanting to legalize recreational drug use as the state battles a fentanyl overdose crisis. For starters, this legislation wouldn’t do that. The drugs would only be permitted in supervised, therapeutic situations.
Plus, as Wiener said, polling shows most Americans are supportive of some form of legalization. A national survey of 1,500 registered voters last year by the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics found that 61% would support creating a regulated legal framework for the therapeutic use of psychedelics.
“People have heard about this. They have read about it. Many people know folks who have benefited from it,” Wiener said. “I don’t think most people associate it with fentanyl or meth. They know it’s different.”
To that end, the legislation will also create a first in the nation private-public partnership to fund education about the benefits and dangers involved with psychedelics.
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“If people understood the medicinal value of using therapy,” Waldron said, “it would really go a long way toward destigmatizing them.”
Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli
Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of “It’s All Political,” The Chronicle’s political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA
He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy — which he discussed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” after being told he couldn’t say the word “balls” on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!
He can be reached at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.
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New California bill would legalize magic mushrooms in one setting – San Francisco Chronicle
