Committee discusses removing criminal penalties for psilocybin possession and establishing medicine board; bill laid over

Sen. Oumou Verbeten presented Senate File 4204 (A4 adopted) to remove criminal penalties for the personal possession and use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms and to create a Psychedelic Medicine Board to set possession limits and advise policy. Sponsor and task force members framed the change as one recommendation of the Psychedelic Medicine Task Force focused on removing criminal penalties for natural psychedelics.

Dr. Jessica Nielsen, chair of the Psychedelic Medicine Task Force, testified in support, summarizing research and the task force's recommendations. She said the task force and several medical associations concluded that decriminalizing personal possession of naturally occurring psychedelics is appropriate and that problematic substance use is a health issue rather than a criminal matter.

Committee members probed practical issues including how law enforcement would determine impairment for driving (no roadside breathalyzer equivalent for psilocybin), membership balance for the proposed medicine board, youth penalties (the bill treats minors' possession as a petty misdemeanor with limited fines), and interaction with federal law. Sponsors said other task-force recommendations addressing therapeutic access, licensing and clinical programs are proceeding in separate bills; this measure focuses narrowly on criminal penalties for personal possession and use. The committee laid the bill over.