New Jersey lawmakers have advanced a bill to provide regulated therapeutic access to psilocybin for adults with qualifying health conditions, with plans to continue to work toward enactment in the 2026 legislative session.
More than a year after the Assembly Health Committee first took up and amended the legislation—sponsored by assemblymembers Herb Conaway (D), Clinton Calabrese (D) and Anthony Verrelli (D)—the panel reconvened on November 24, taking testimony and reporting it out favorably.
“We’re all broken in one way, shape or form,” Verrelli said at the hearing. “This bill gives another option for people to heal and get better. And by getting them better, it gives them the opportunity to make their communities, their families and life in general better—to break that cycle of trauma, however it looks.”
In 2024 the committee amended the legislation in a way that aligns in with a Senate version. To advocates’ disappointment, however, that meant removing provisions that would have more broadly legalized psilocybin for adult use.
Initially, the legislation was introduced in identical form to what lawmakers proposed in the 2024 session—a plan that included personal legalization provisions, which the recent amended versions takes out. Those components would have made up to 4 grams of psilocybin legal for adults to “possess, store, use, ingest, inhale, process, transport, deliver without consideration or distribute without consideration.”
The amended measures would nevertheless significantly expand on legislation introduced in late 2020 to reduce penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of psilocybin. That reform that was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy (D) in 2021.
Stacy Swanson, who testified on behalf of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), stressed at the November 24 hearing that the “invisible wounds of war do not just affect the veteran—they affect the entire family.”
“This bill does not legalize recreational drugs,” she said. “It creates structured, clinically supervised access with required integration and follow-up.”
In its amended version, the bill would charge the Department of Health (DOH) with licensing and regulating the manufacture, testing, transport, delivery, sale and purchase of psilocybin. There would be five license types: manufacturer, service center operator, testing laboratory, facilitator and psilocybin worker.
A Psilocybin Advisory Board would establish qualifying medical conditions for use, propose guidelines for psilocybin services and dosage, craft safety screenings and informed consent practices, and oversee facilitator education, training and conduct.
Its stated goal would be to develop a long-term strategic plan for safe, accessible and affordable access to psilocybin for all people 21 and older.
A social equity program would be tasked with establishing financial assistance to help low-income people cover costs of psilocybin services.
Toward that goal, a social equity program would be tasked with establishing financial assistance to help low-income people cover costs of psilocybin services. DOH would also be directed to establish programs for technical assistance, reduced fees and other support services.
Jesse McLaughlin, director of state advocacy at Reason for Hope, said at the hearing that psychedelic medicine represents the “next great breakthrough in psychiatry, and we need to prepare our healthcare system for it.”
“Psilocybin therapy is time-intensive, workforce-intensive and fundamentally different from how psychiatric care is delivered today,” he said.
In order to access the psilocybin services under the bill, a patient with a qualifying condition would need to obtain a referral from a licensed health care professional. Services would also include mandatory preparation and integration sessions before and after the administration of psilocybin.
The Assembly bill next heads to the Appropriations Committee. The Senate companion has already cleared two panels in that chamber—the Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and the Budget and Appropriations Committee.
A survey of New Jersey residents released in 2024 indicates that a majority agree with making psilocybin available for therapeutic use, though they weren’t asked specifically about the specific legislation.
The poll, from Stockton University’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, found that 55 percent of respondents supported legalizing psilocybin for medical use under a doctor’s supervision. Just 20 percent of respondents were opposed, while 24 percent said they weren’t sure. One percent of respondents refused to answer the question.
Image via National Institutes of Health
This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on X and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.