New Jersey lawmakers Thursday shelved a plan to decriminalize the use of psilocybin in favor of a bill only allowing its use for therapeutic purposes and in preventive behavioral health treatment.
Lawmakers voted on the bill to approve using psilocybin in health care, swapping that version for one on their agenda that would have decriminalized the drug and called for expungement for past offenses involving the possession, use and distribution of psilocybin.
“This is a public health initiative and a medical initiative for those who need to potentially have this medicine to address any number of conditions,” Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a primary sponsor of the bill, said before Thursday’s meeting of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.
“It would seem to me that those who were penalized in the past for possession or use were likely not using it for medical purposes,” Vitale said, explaining why the decriminalization and expungement language was taken out of the bill.
The last-minute change by state lawmakers comes amid increasing public support for the legalization of the drug for therapeutic purposes and a growing body of research pointing to psilocybin’s effectiveness in treating major depressive disorder and alcohol-use disorder, among other mental health and substance use issues.
A little more than half of New Jerseyans support legalizing such treatment under a doctor’s supervision, while 20% are opposed to it and 24% are unsure, according to a recent report from researchers at Stockton University.
A report published in the August 2023 Journal of the American Medical Association said that a single dose of psilocybin treatment was associated with a “clinically significant sustained reduction” in depressive symptoms without serious “adverse events.” These findings add to increasing evidence that psilocybin — when administered with psychological support — may “hold promise” as an intervention for major depressive disorder, according to the report.
Under the substituted bill approved Thursday, psilocybin services will include a “preparation session” that involves an initial screening to verify a patient’s age, to ensure they have a valid referral from a health care professional and to determine whether the drug would be beneficial for them, among other measures. The health care practitioners that can provide referrals include doctors, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, psychologists and clinical social workers.
Next, an “administration session” would occur in which psilocybin is given to the patient by a service facilitator, who would stay with the patient and guide them throughout the session. “Service facilitators” are people who are licensed to administer the drug, according to the bill.
Finally, a mandatory “integration therapy session” must take place after an administration session. There, a patient is required to meet with a behavioral health care provider and a service facilitator to receive any follow-up services and additional referrals for their ongoing treatment and to “process the results” of the administration session.
“As a psychotherapist, I can unequivocally state that psilocybin, when used with attention to set and setting, affords the greatest healing of any therapeutic modality I have witnessed in my career,” Denise Rue, the founder of the New Jersey Psychedelic Therapy Association, said in testimony before the Senate committee Thursday.
From 2019 to 2022, Rue worked at a legal psilocybin retreat in Jamaica, she said, where she led retreats as a therapist supervising over 1,500 psilocybin sessions.
“We know from ample clinical studies and thousands of years of Indigenous use that psilocybin is nontoxic, nonaddictive and generally well tolerated by most people,” she said.
Still, some lawmakers, including Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen), remain concerned about the legislation as it stands.
“I want to see psilocybin move forward in New Jersey, but even the new language really needs to be even further focused on the use of psilocybin to specifically treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders and related mental health diagnoses,” said Schepisi, a co-sponsor of the bill.
Under the updated bill, each applicant for a psilocybin service-facilitator license must submit documentation to the state Department of Health proving that they are 21 years of age or older, have a high school diploma or its equivalent, have completed the education and training requirements for licensure and have successfully completed any required exams. Applicants don’t have to have a degree from a college or university, according to the bill.
Additionally, service facilitators cannot advertise psilocybin services to the public under the updated bill. However, service centers will be allowed to advertise psilocybin services to health care professionals in the state.
‘We know from ample clinical studies and thousands of years of Indigenous use that psilocybin is nontoxic, nonaddictive and generally well tolerated by most people.’ — Denise Rue, founder of New Jersey Psychedelic Therapy Association
The move by lawmakers to push the bill forward follows similar steps taken by state officials nationwide. Oregon was the first state in the country to implement and regulate legal psilocybin services. There, officials in the Oregon Health Authority license and regulate the manufacturing, transportation, delivery, sale and purchase of psilocybin products after a ballot measure was passed in November 2020 and has since been codified into law.
The Oregon Psilocybin Services Section, housed within the Oregon Health Authority, began accepting applications for licensure on Jan. 2, 2023, and psilocybin service centers began to open to clients in the summer of 2023. As of June 3, the state has issued 331 facilitator licenses, 27 service center licenses and 11 manufacturer licenses, according to Angela Allbee, the section manager for Oregon Psilocybin Services.
At the federal level, U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill aimed at moving 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. The bill is still pending in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Earlier this week, an independent advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration rejected the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to The New York Times.
In New Jersey, the Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Services Act has bipartisan support and passed the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee by a vote of 6-2 on Thursday.
“I think it’s time for New Jersey to start thinking outside-the-box when it comes to addressing our growing mental health crisis and should embrace the potential of this innovative medical therapy,” Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement.
An identical bill in the Assembly (A-3852) has not yet been voted on.
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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