New Jersey Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Union) has introduced a bill that would legalize psilocybin or magic mushrooms. It allows for their legal personal cultivation.
Scutari introduced a comprehensive magic mushrooms legalization bill called the “Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Services Act” as S 2934. It is 50 pages long.
Magic Mushroom Homegrow OK
The most revolutionary part of the bill is that Scutari does not see cannabis homegrow legalization occurring soon. But the bill permits magic mushroom homegrow.
“It will also not be unlawful for a person over 21 years of age to grow, cultivate, or process plants or fungi capable of producing psilocybin for personal use. Or to possess the psilocybin produced if the plants and fungi are kept on the grounds of a private home or residence and are kept secure from access by persons under 21 years of age. It will further not be unlawful to assist another person who is 21 years of age or older or allow property to be used in the course of engaging in such conduct.”
Possession of a small number of magic mushrooms would be allowed. “The bill provides that it will not be unlawful for a person over 21 years of age to possess. Store, use, ingest, inhale, process, transport, deliver without consideration, or distribute without consideration, four grams or less of psilocybin.”
“Science is emerging with new medical uses for psilocybin. This bill seeks to destigmatize this natural product and to promote research to benefit mental and physical health,” Scutari said.
Those coping with trauma, addiction, depression, anxiety, and end-of-life distress would be eligible for medical magic mushroom treatment.
Legalization Details
The bill would set up a legal medical magic mushrooms regulatory framework similar to New Jersey Cannabis.
“It is necessary and appropriate to develop a comprehensive regulatory scheme to ensure that psilocybin can be accessed in safe, controlled environments. That are designed to foster improvements in behavioral health for adult patients,” the bill says.
The bill would be “ensuring that psilocybin services become and remain a safe, accessible, and affordable treatment option for people age 21 and older in New Jersey for whom behavioral health treatment and preventative behavioral health care using psilocybin is appropriate.”
The bill would establish in the NJ Department of Health “the Psilocybin Behavioral Health Access and Services Advisory Board.” The Board will have 18 members appointed and representing many fields of expertise, agencies, and departments. That includes the NJ Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJCRC).
They would be authorized “to regulate the manufacturing, testing, transportation, delivery, sale, and purchase of psilocybin products and the provision of psilocybin services.”
Shroom Company Licensing
A complicated licensing process is outlined. It is similar to the one in Scutari’s 2009 Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act (CUMMA) medical cannabis bill that set up New Jersey’s limited and expensive medical cannabis program mostly controlled by large, out-of-state, and White male-owned corporations is described.
The Board is empowered “to issue, renew, suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew psilocybin product manufacturer, psilocybin service center operator, psilocybin testing laboratory, and psilocybin service center facilitator, licenses and psilocybin worker permits.”
So Scutari wants to create a medical magic mushroom-tripping lounge and regulate who works in the industry.
The bill also sets up several deadlines for when the implementation of medical magic mushroom legalization should occur. It does not currently have a companion in the Assembly.
The bill assumes legalized medical magic mushrooms would be welcomed and would not generate the rage of many Not In MY Back Yard (NIMBY) Karens. They are impeding the implementation of the New Jersey cannabis, which passed with 67 percent of the vote, including the majority in all but a handful of the state’s more than 500 towns.
Magic Mushrooms Legalization Growing
Magic mushrooms, like cannabis, is another area where the underground culture has been leading and finding its merits. The government has to catch up.
In the middle of the fight to pass the implementation legislation of New Jersey’s 2020 cannabis legalization referendum, seemingly out of nowhere, he introduced an amendment downgrading magic mushrooms possession charges.
This subsequently led many unlicensed cannabis operators to start offering magic mushrooms as well as cannabis. They are usually shipped in from the West Coast. They sell both the natural sem and cap form and magic mushroom chocolate bars.
Nationally, many earlier cannabis legalization leaders have taken up the cause of magic mushroom legalization. Oregon, an early cannabis adopter, legalized magic mushrooms by referendum in 2020, but the rollout process is still ongoing.
It has been found to treat trauma better, particularly Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many military veterans and others suffer from PTSD.
Magic mushrooms are good if used in measured doses. Small or microdoses are especially good for beginners.
Magic mushrooms are ingrained in the culture, hiding in plain sight. The red and white mushroom that Super Mario eats to grow and the Smurfs live in is known as amamita miscaria. It is known to be one of the strongest hallucinogenic mushrooms. Psilocybin Cubensis is the most commonly consumed mushroom used to trip.
