Connecticut lawmakers have advanced a bill to decriminalize psilocybin for adults, despite the Democratic governor indicating he’d reject an earlier version of the reform measure.
The legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee passed the proposal on Friday in a 29-12 vote. This comes about one month after the panel first took up the bill, debating the issue and taking public testimony.
If enacted, the legislation would make possession of up to one-half an ounce of psilocybin punishable by a $150 fine, without the threat of jail time.
This marks the third session in a row that Connecticut lawmakers have worked to advance psilocybin decriminalization. In 2023, the reform measure cleared the House but did not move through the Senate. The Judiciary Committee also approved a version last year.
Under the bill, a second or subsequent possession violation would carry a fine of at least $200 but not more than $500. A person who pleads guilty or no contest on two separate occasions would be referred to a substance misuse treatment program.
“I want to emphasize, it does not legalize psilocybin. It certainly does not legalize driving under the influence of psilocybin,” Rep. Steven Stafstrom (D), the House chair of the committee, said on Friday. “All it does is reduce the current penalty for possession of under half of an ounce of psilocybin from a misdemeanor to an infraction.”
Police would be require to seize and destroy any amount of the psychedelic they find under the current measure, HB 7065. Possession of more than a half-ounce of psilocybin would be considered a Class A misdemeanor.
Members of the committee rejected an amendment that would have provided $1 million in funding to support recruitment, training and retention of drug recognition experts (DREs). The amendment sponsor expressed concerns about impaired driving, emphasizing that the state currently only has 60 DREs, but the chair urged opposition because he felt any appropriations would be better handled by a separate panel.
When the proposal came up last year—which involved an informational forum with lawmakers and activists to discuss the therapeutic potential of substances such as psilocybin and potential pathways to allow for regulated access—the office of Gov. Ned Lamont (D) indicated that it may face a barrier to enactment.
“The governor has concerns about broad decriminalization of mushrooms,” a spokesperson said at the time, noting that at the time it was “a bit too early to speculate” because the bill had not yet been filed yet at that point.
As the 2023 version to decriminalize possession of psilocybin advanced, Lamont also reportedly threatened to veto it, despite having championed and signed into law legislation to legalize cannabis in 2021.
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Lamont signed a large-scale budget bill in 2022 that includes provisions to set the state up to provide certain patients with access to psychedelic-assisted treatment using substances like MDMA and psilocybin.
Prior to that, he also signed separate legislation in 2021 that required the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to create a task force to study the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.
Separately, a Connecticut lawmaker also introduced different legislation in 2023 that would have appropriated an unspecified amount of state funds to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the current fiscal year to establish a “psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program.”
Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert.
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