Leading medical cannabis advocate Michael Brennan of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of NJ (CMMNJ) is concerned with New Jersey’s recently passed limited medical magic mushroom or psilocybin study legislation.

So, he wrote an op-ed letter to Heady NJ published below.

NJ Medical Psilocybin Issues

New Jersey’s psilocybin bill, S2283, moved forward this month in the Legislature. And it is being rightly praised as a sign of progress. For patients living with treatment-resistant depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), chronic pain, terminal illness, or substance-use disorders, the promise of legal, supervised psilocybin therapy represents more than innovation. It represents hope.

But as a cancer patient, a chronic pain survivor, and a long-time advocate with the Coalition for Medical Marijuana–New Jersey (CMMNJ), I have lived through another moment like this. When the New Jersey Medical Cannabis Program (NJMCP) launched in 2010, it offered hope, too. What patients received instead was a system designed around limited access, high costs, and corporate consolidation. A decade later, many of those barriers still exist.

The risk now is that S2283, though well-intentioned, may repeat the same structural mistakes.

A research bill without access is not a medical program.

S2283 establishes a medical psilocybin research framework. But it provides no mechanism for actual patient access. Research centers and academic institutions will be permitted to cultivate, possess, and administer psilocybin for research purposes only. Meanwhile, patients will remain on the outside. Waiting for access that may take years to materialize.

A research-only approach benefits institutions. Not the people the research is meant to serve.

This is precisely what happened with cannabis. The early NJMCP placed control in the hands of a small number of operators, created artificial scarcity, and allowed prices to skyrocket unchecked. Without insurance coverage or home cultivation, patients were forced to pay out-of-pocket or turn to unregulated markets. Too many still do.

If psilocybin follows the same trajectory, New Jersey will once again build a medical program accessible only to those who can afford it.

Medical Psilocybin Science

The science is strong. So why delay patient access?

For more than a decade, leading research institutions, Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Imperial College of London, have demonstrated psilocybin’s therapeutic potential. Patients with severe depression have shown rapid, lasting improvement. Veterans with PTSD report meaningful relief. Cancer patients facing end-of-life anxiety see reduced fear and improved quality of life.

New Jersey does not need to reinvent the wheel. It needs to implement what science has already validated.

If S2283 is to serve real patients, it must evolve beyond a restricted research bill. Legislators should:

• Establish supervised therapeutic access pathways.
• Create training and licensure channels for facilitators and clinicians.
• Ensure affordability and prevent monopolistic pricing.
• Include patient advocates in rulemaking from the beginning.

These steps are necessary if New Jersey intends to build a psilocybin system that is patient-centered rather than institution-centered.

Patients cannot wait another decade.

People suffering from severe depression or trauma do not have the luxury of waiting ten years for meaningful access. New Jersey can lead the nation with a thoughtful, science-based approach. But only if lawmakers avoid the pitfalls that trapped medical cannabis in bureaucracy and corporate control.

S2283 is an important beginning. Now it must become a bill that truly serves patients.

By Michael Brennan, Cancer survivor and chronic pain patient, Board Member, CMMNJ