A wave of psychedelics legislation continues to sweep across the country.
Recently, lawmakers in Virginia and Kansas filed new bills meant to reduce penalties for the cultivation, possession or use of psilocybin mushrooms - also known as “magic mushrooms.”
In Virginia, two very similar proposals were introduced simultaneously in the House and Senate by Del. Dawn Adams and Sen. Ghazala Hashmi.
The bills would amend the state’s drug statute by making possession of psilocybin and psilocin by adults 21 and older a civil penalty subject to a $100 fine, from what currently constitutes a Class 5 felony. The Senate bill also includes peyote and ibogaine in its language.
The bills are sponsored by Decriminalize Nature Virginia, the local chapter of Decriminalize Nature, a nonprofit behind many of the successful psychedelics decriminalization efforts around the country, which today include Seattle, Detroit, Oakland, Ann Arbor, Santa Cruz, Denver and several municipalities in the Boston metropolitan area.
In Utah, Rep. Brady Brammer introduced a bill intended to set up a task force to study and make recommendations on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs and possible regulations around their use.
The bill would create a Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force tasked with studying and making recommendations on drugs that can assist in treating mental illness, specifically controlled substances that are “not currently available for legal use.”
In Kansas, a bill was introduced to legalize low-level possession and cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms.
If approved, the “Legalized Homegrown Psilocybin Mushroom Act of 2022,” would remove criminal penalties for possessing up to 50 grams of psilocybin or psilocin or cultivating psilocybin mushrooms.
The bill would amend state statute to make it “not be a violation” of state law to cultivate psilocin or psilocybin.
Last week, a Republican lawmaker in Missouri filed a bill to give residents with serious illnesses legal access to a range of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, ibogaine and LSD through an expanded version of the state’s existing right-to-try law.
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