Magic mushrooms, whose active ingredient is psilocybin, could see relaxed laws around their cultivation and use in Rhode Island. (Workman/Wikimedia)
A partisan bill going before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday offers a vision for a drug known for making people see things: psilocybin, the main ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
Bill H7047 introduced Jan. 5 by Rep. Brandon Potter, a Cranston Democrat, and nine other Democrats, would temporarily decriminalize possession and cultivation of up to an ounce of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The bill’s provisions would last for a two-year trial period before being evaluated.
It’s the third time Potter has tried to pass a mushroom bill. He introduced an almost identical version of the bill last year while the 2022 version focused expressly on allowing mushrooms in medical practice. That bill was sponsored by five representatives and never made it to a vote.
That doesn’t mean the past bills went unnoticed: “The amount of people that reached out to me and thanked me for it was really staggering,” Potter said in a phone interview. “I mean, I got recognized at the beach. Somebody came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I really appreciate you doing the mushroom bill,’ and told me about their story and how it helped them.’”
The past decade has seen yesteryear’s party drugs slowly enter psychiatry’s medicine cabinet, like MDMA, also known as ecstasy, ketamine and now psilocybin. Mushrooms are touted as a potential remedy for treatment-resistant depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and palliative care.
Potter sees the bill as increasing access to a drug that could ease a lot of suffering. Rather than constrain it to medical practice alone, Potter wants decriminalization to ensure users aren’t punished.
“It’s a matter of a fundamental human right to tell you the truth, that people want to use a natural medicine,” he said. “We shouldn’t have law enforcement looking to put them in prison for it.”
Shroom laws nationwide are in flux. Oregon was the first to legalize psilocybin therapy and decriminalize possession in 2020, and Colorado followed with similar legislation in 2022. Some municipalities have softened or discarded their enforcement of psilocybin’s criminality. Eight states have active legislation for psychedelic laws, while Rhode Island is among the 15 states marked with “inactive or failed legislation,” as seen on a November 2023 map from Psychedelic Alpha, a website which monitors and analyzes data on psychedelic research and legislation.
Thursday’s committee hearing could change that — emphasis on “could,” given that Potter’s fungi-friendly bill wasn’t cultivated to completion last year. It passed the house 56-11 and even had the support of House Minority Whip David Place, who co-sponsored the bill. But the Senate’s companion bill, led by Sen. Meghan Kallman of Pawtucket, ended up being held in committee.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi voted “Yes” last year.
“I support this legislation in concept but I await the committee hearing to review any new information that comes forward,” he said in an emailed statement to Rhode Island Current. “I voted for it last year upon learning that psilocybin can be an effective treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD and a number of other mental and behavioral health issues. The bill sunsets after a two-year period in which the effectiveness can be studied further.”
Potter singled out veterans as well: “When you have veterans who served in Iraq, and they’ve seen some of the most traumatic things unfold in front of them, and they come back and they say, ‘Hey, this helped me. And this is the only thing that helps me…I mean, what are people going to say in response to that? That these people don’t deserve every kind of option available to them to help them?”
Only three representatives on the 15-member House Judiciary Committee voted against last year’s bill. The committee chair, Robert Craven of North Kingstown, did not vote at all.
This year’s bill goes beyond the purely medical and encompasses decriminalization, but as written, that’s “contingent upon the United States Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) rescheduling of psilocybin.”
Psilocybin is a Schedule I drug both statewide and federally — the highest and most illicit category afforded by the FDA, which presumes a drug has limited medical use but a towering potential for abuse. Psilocybin’s dubious distinction in federal drug laws has historically been one barrier to further research. But even the FDA has started to relax: It issued preliminary guidance for clinical trials with psychedelics in 2023, while reiterating their status as “investigational products” that require plenty of testing.
House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale claimed “strong opinions” on the issue. He acknowledged that “controlled psilocybin use” has evidence of effectiveness in conditions like PTSD and has medicinal potential when administered by a mental health professional.
“However, due to Rhode Island’s severe shortage of mental health providers and the lengthy nature of psilocybin treatments, we lack the necessary resources to ensure safe and effective administration. Therefore, I believe it’s premature to legalize this treatment,” Chippendale wrote in an email.
Potter’s bill specifies that the Rhode Island Department of Health would regulate psilocybin as it does most medicines. Another contingency is that, should the FDA expand access to the drug, Rhode Islanders “with a serious or life-threatening mental or behavioral health disorder, who are without access to effective mental or behavioral health medication, may have access to psilocybin” at health department-approved locations.
Last year, the House and Senate both approved a revision of the state’s own drug scheduling, and added five sedatives to Schedule I — including xylazine, now a common adulterant in street opioids and other illicit drugs. The bill saw six “Nos’’ in the House, but passed the Senate unanimously.
In Rhode Island, possession of 10 or less grams of psilocybin is a misdemeanor that’s punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $500, per specific penalties in the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.
A common recreational dose of mushrooms is between 1 and 2.5 grams, or 0.035 to 0.088 ounces, according to Erowid, a harm reduction database that catalogs the effects of psychoactive drugs.
“I mean, truthfully, I just thought it was a reasonable amount for personal usage,” Potter said. “And it’s an easy amount for most people to understand and recognize.”
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by Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
February 1, 2024
by Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current
February 1, 2024
A partisan bill going before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday offers a vision for a drug known for making people see things: psilocybin, the main ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
Bill H7047 introduced Jan. 5 by Rep. Brandon Potter, a Cranston Democrat, and nine other Democrats, would temporarily decriminalize possession and cultivation of up to an ounce of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The bill’s provisions would last for a two-year trial period before being evaluated.
It’s the third time Potter has tried to pass a mushroom bill. He introduced an almost identical version of the bill last year while the 2022 version focused expressly on allowing mushrooms in medical practice. That bill was sponsored by five representatives and never made it to a vote.
That doesn’t mean the past bills went unnoticed: “The amount of people that reached out to me and thanked me for it was really staggering,” Potter said in a phone interview. “I mean, I got recognized at the beach. Somebody came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I really appreciate you doing the mushroom bill,’ and told me about their story and how it helped them.’”
The past decade has seen yesteryear’s party drugs slowly enter psychiatry’s medicine cabinet, like MDMA, also known as ecstasy, ketamine and now psilocybin. Mushrooms are touted as a potential remedy for treatment-resistant depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and palliative care.
Potter sees the bill as increasing access to a drug that could ease a lot of suffering. Rather than constrain it to medical practice alone, Potter wants decriminalization to ensure users aren’t punished.
“It’s a matter of a fundamental human right to tell you the truth, that people want to use a natural medicine,” he said. “We shouldn’t have law enforcement looking to put them in prison for it.”
Shroom laws nationwide are in flux. Oregon was the first to legalize psilocybin therapy and decriminalize possession in 2020, and Colorado followed with similar legislation in 2022. Some municipalities have softened or discarded their enforcement of psilocybin’s criminality. Eight states have active legislation for psychedelic laws, while Rhode Island is among the 15 states marked with “inactive or failed legislation,” as seen on a November 2023 map from Psychedelic Alpha, a website which monitors and analyzes data on psychedelic research and legislation.
Thursday’s committee hearing could change that — emphasis on “could,” given that Potter’s fungi-friendly bill wasn’t cultivated to completion last year. It passed the house 56-11 and even had the support of House Minority Whip David Place, who co-sponsored the bill. But the Senate’s companion bill, led by Sen. Meghan Kallman of Pawtucket, ended up being held in committee.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi voted “Yes” last year.
“I support this legislation in concept but I await the committee hearing to review any new information that comes forward,” he said in an emailed statement to Rhode Island Current. “I voted for it last year upon learning that psilocybin can be an effective treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD and a number of other mental and behavioral health issues. The bill sunsets after a two-year period in which the effectiveness can be studied further.”
Potter singled out veterans as well: “When you have veterans who served in Iraq, and they’ve seen some of the most traumatic things unfold in front of them, and they come back and they say, ‘Hey, this helped me. And this is the only thing that helps me…I mean, what are people going to say in response to that? That these people don’t deserve every kind of option available to them to help them?”
Only three representatives on the 15-member House Judiciary Committee voted against last year’s bill. The committee chair, Robert Craven of North Kingstown, did not vote at all.
This year’s bill goes beyond the purely medical and encompasses decriminalization, but as written, that’s “contingent upon the United States Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) rescheduling of psilocybin.”
Psilocybin is a Schedule I drug both statewide and federally — the highest and most illicit category afforded by the FDA, which presumes a drug has limited medical use but a towering potential for abuse. Psilocybin’s dubious distinction in federal drug laws has historically been one barrier to further research. But even the FDA has started to relax: It issued preliminary guidance for clinical trials with psychedelics in 2023, while reiterating their status as “investigational products” that require plenty of testing.
House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale claimed “strong opinions” on the issue. He acknowledged that “controlled psilocybin use” has evidence of effectiveness in conditions like PTSD and has medicinal potential when administered by a mental health professional.
“However, due to Rhode Island’s severe shortage of mental health providers and the lengthy nature of psilocybin treatments, we lack the necessary resources to ensure safe and effective administration. Therefore, I believe it’s premature to legalize this treatment,” Chippendale wrote in an email.
Potter’s bill specifies that the Rhode Island Department of Health would regulate psilocybin as it does most medicines. Another contingency is that, should the FDA expand access to the drug, Rhode Islanders “with a serious or life-threatening mental or behavioral health disorder, who are without access to effective mental or behavioral health medication, may have access to psilocybin” at health department-approved locations.
Last year, the House and Senate both approved a revision of the state’s own drug scheduling, and added five sedatives to Schedule I — including xylazine, now a common adulterant in street opioids and other illicit drugs. The bill saw six “Nos’’ in the House, but passed the Senate unanimously.
In Rhode Island, possession of 10 or less grams of psilocybin is a misdemeanor that’s punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $500, per specific penalties in the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.
A common recreational dose of mushrooms is between 1 and 2.5 grams, or 0.035 to 0.088 ounces, according to Erowid, a harm reduction database that catalogs the effects of psychoactive drugs.
“I mean, truthfully, I just thought it was a reasonable amount for personal usage,” Potter said. “And it’s an easy amount for most people to understand and recognize.”
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Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on Facebook and X.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
Alexander Castro covers education and health for Rhode Island Current. He has worked extensively in the visual arts as a critic, curator and adjunct professor.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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The Rhode Island Current is an independent, nonprofit news outlet focused on state government and the impact of public policy decisions in the Ocean State. Readers can expect relentless reporting with the context needed to understand key issues affecting the lives of Rhode Islanders.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
© Rhode Island Current, 2024
Push to legalize magic mushrooms is back before House Judiciary Committee – Rhode Island Current
