Microdoses of psilocybin, a derivative from of so-caled magic mushrooms, can have a wide range of health benefits. (Getty Images)
Lauren Dayton suffered from cluster headaches for more than a decade, a pain she compares to walking with broken bones or giving birth without an epidural.
Every three months, she’d visit emergency rooms seeking help, though not even a morphine drip would relieve her pain. Often, her kids would come home and find her passed out from the intensity of her headaches.
The only relief she’s found is psilocybin, the drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Once a year for the last four years, she takes a small dose and spends the rest of the year free of headaches and pain.
But it’s currently illegal, both federally and in New Jersey. Dayton urged lawmakers on the Senate’s budget committee to advance a bill Monday that would legalize and highly regulate psilocybin treatment centers for people suffering from illnesses or behavioral issues that can be treated by the drug.
“Keep in mind the value of how this bill could transform patients like myself. I do not want to get arrested. I do not want to take something that is laced with something. I want to know that it is from New Jersey, regulated by New Jersey, given by New Jersey under this regulatory scheme,” she said.
Her testimony swayed Republican lawmakers like Sen. Mike Testa to support the bill, which advanced unanimously. Sen. Doug Steinhardt abstained, saying he wanted to look into more studies.
“We need to always keep our minds open and allow experts to continue to find ways to treat mental health,” said Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the committee’s chair.
The amended bill advanced Monday focuses largely on therapeutic access for adults over 21. A previous version of the bill, sponsored by Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), included provisions that would have allowed adults to possess up to four grams of psilocybin.
The measure, as amended, would still put New Jersey at the forefront of regulating the use of psilocybin for health care treatments. Oregon and Colorado have both legalized psilocybin treatment for therapeutic uses and research.
Multiple studies have found one dose of the psychedelic drug can have a wide range of health benefits, ranging from easing emotional distress in people with cancer to relieving symptoms of major depressive disorder.
The bill would create a 15-member advisory board that includes representatives from the Department of Health and nine gubernatorial appointees with experience in psychedelic-assisted therapy. During an 18-month period, they’d issue recommendations on the implementation of the bill, including:
Requirements, specifications, and guidelines for providing psilocybin to a patient.
Public health and safety standards.
A code of professional conduct.
Exams that psilocybin facilitators would be required to take as a condition of licensure.
Qualifications and cost for license applications and issuances fees.
Requirements for tracking psilocybin products, including transportation and delivery between businesses.
Requirements for a “social opportunity and equitable access program.”
Licensing can begin after the 18-month period but no later than 24 months after the effective date of the bill. At that point, state health officials would be tasked with licensing and regulating the manufacture, transport, delivery, testing, sale, and purchase of psilocybin. Licenses could be issued for psilocybin product manufacturers, service center operators, testing laboratories, psilocybin facilitators, and workers.
Applicants seeking to provide those services would have to be at least 21 years old, undergo a background check, and provide leasing documents. People can hold multiple licenses, and a license would be valid for one year under the legislation.
The board would also create regulations for the social opportunity program, but the bill states applicants would be required to have a primary residence in a “distressed area” for five of the last 10 years, hire a workforce where half reside in a distressed area, or demonstrate an economic need.
All psilocybin manufacturing would be done indoors, and no service center would be located within areas dedicated to residential zoning or within 1,000 feet of a school. The centers would be required to take steps to “prevent noisy, lewd, disorderly and disruptive conduct.”
No public advertising would be allowed, though centers could advertise to other health care professionals. Delivery to patients would also be prohibited under the bill.
Because the board would devise the standards for someone to qualify for psilocybin, some details remain unknown.
Patients would be required to obtain a written certificate signed by a health care professional — a physician, advanced practice nurse, or a physician assistant — stating the patient has a qualifying medical condition.
Psilocybin service centers and psilocybin service facilitators would split a session into three parts: preparation, administration, integration. The preparation session would include verifying the person’s age, informing them of any safety disclosures, and establishing informed consent and their goals of care. Then, the psilocybin service facilitator would begin the administration session and remain with the patient throughout the treatment, which would end with a mandatory therapy session to process the results of the treatment and provide any follow-up services.
Administration sessions must be held at a psilocybin service center, while preparation and integration therapy sessions can be done in person or remotely at a service center “or other appropriate location.”
The legislation mandates psilocybin service centers send annual reports to the Department of Health, with details on how many patients and returning patients were served; their dosage and medical condition; average cost of services per patient; demographics; assessments of patient satisfaction; and information on employee training. This would be publicly available, though all personal and health information would remain private.
The bill would not legalize the sale of psilocybin to be taken home — anything sold must be consumed on the premises under supervision.
Any psilocybin manufacturer, center, testing lab, facilitator, worker, or patient would be immune from the state’s drug laws. Employers would be barred from firing people based on their psilocybin treatment unless they’re visibly impaired at work. The treatment could also not be used as a factor in deciding on the health or welfare of a patient’s child or eligibility for assistance programs.
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