The leader of the New Jersey Senate filed a bill on Thursday that would legalize the possession, home cultivation and gifting of psilocybin mushrooms for adults 21 and older—with provisions that give adults even more freedoms for the psychedelic than are afforded under the state’s current marijuana laws.
The legislation from Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D), who has long championed cannabis reform in the Garden State, would further create a system of licensed businesses to provide psilocybin services in supervised settings.
Scutari’s proposed “Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Services Act” represents a bold development in the psychedelics reform movement that’s rapidly spread in state legislatures and through citizen-led initiatives throughout the country in recent years. And the fact that the legislation is originating from leadership who is intimately familiar with drug policy reform is a firm indicator that this is a serious endeavor.
The beginning of the bill discusses the “high prevalence” of behavioral health conditions that afflict New Jersey adults and the growing body of research demonstrating that psilocybin may serve as a valuable treatment option for certain conditions, as further evidenced by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designating the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy” based on preliminary clinical trials.
