Connecticut lawmakers are considering another push to decriminalize psilocybin — a psychedelic substance often called magic mushrooms — after a similar bill stalled late in last year’s legislative process amid skepticism from Gov. Ned Lamont.
In 2023, the legislature’s Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that would have made possession of less than a half ounce of psilocybin a ticketable offense, punishable by a $150 fine on the first offense with greater fines and drug education programs on subsequent offenses.
The bill made considerable progress. The House of Representatives approved the proposal on an 86-64 vote with the support of a majority of Democrats and two Republicans. However, it was never raised for a final vote in the Senate, where it expired at the end of last year’s session.
Bolstered by a growing body of research suggesting that controlled dosages of psychedelic substances can aid in the mitigation of hard-to-treat mental health conditions, proponents hope to make another attempt at decriminalizing the drug during the legislative session that begins on Feb. 7.
Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the Judiciary Committee, said the panel would consider the bill again this year.
“I certainly plan to reintroduce it this year and look forward to a public hearing before the committee,” Stafstrom said Monday. “There’s a lot of benefits to decriminalizing and I’m hoping to committee will be receptive to it again this year.”
The proposal will be the subject of a Wednesday morning news conference in the Legislative Office Building, where Rep. David Michel, D-Stamford, will host panelists including two doctors affiliated with Harvard and a criminal justice advocate.
In an interview Monday, Rep. Josh Elliott, a Hamden Democrat and proponent of the effort to decriminalize the substance, said he was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which last year’s Connecticut bill advanced through a legislative process that often resists the quick adoption of new concepts.
“Even some members on the Republican side recognized the potential use for medical and I think that peoples’ understanding of how this has helped people, especially returning veterans, really turns this into a bipartisan issue,” Elliott said.
But while many Republicans and some Democrats voted against the bill and voiced concerns that decriminalization may be followed closely by an effort to legalize and regulate the drug, Elliott said the proposal has another, potentially more problematic obstacle.
Elliott said that the governor signaled to legislators he would have vetoed last year’s decriminalization bill.
Julia Bergman, a spokesperson for the governor, said Monday that it was too soon to speculate whether Lamont would sign such a bill if it were passed this year, but acknowledged the governor had concerns about broad decriminalization of the substance.
In the past, Lamont has said he believed psilocybin had potentially valuable treatment applications.
“I assume it’s for medical purposes. I think that makes some sense. I don’t know if we want to be arresting people,” Lamont said last year. “I know what it means for PTSD and a lot of vets who are coming back.”
The renewed push to decriminalize the substance in Connecticut comes amid growing interest in the potential of psychedelics to mitigate the symptoms of post traumatic stress and depression among veterans when they are coupled with psychotherapy.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it was seeking research proposals to study psychedelics including psilocybin and MDMA (commonly referred to as ecstasy or molly), as part of the first VA-funded research into psychedelic compounds since the 1960s.
“Veterans and VA researchers have told us about the potential promise of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions for some time,” Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the VA’s under secretary of health, said in a Friday press release. “Now is our chance to study this potential method of treating Veterans with PTSD and major depression across the country.”
A growing number of existing studies, including those by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, have suggested psilocybin can be used to mitigate hard-to-treat forms of depression when paired with therapy.
Last year’s decriminalization bill is not the first time Connecticut policymakers have weighed the potential benefits of psilocybin. Legislation passed in 2021 created an advisory group to study whether therapy-assisted psilocybin could provide mental health benefits.
Despite some potential risks, the group’s report called the limited available research “promising” and suggested the state explore opportunities to fund research projects to better understand the treatment.
On Monday, Elliott said he believed it was only a matter of time before Connecticut joined several other states in decriminalizing the substance, though he was not sure what form the policy would ultimately take.
“For many people the goal is to have a medical framework,” he said. “My goal is just to not send people to prison based off of their drug use. If somebody has an addiction issue or a substance abuse issue, you treat that behavior but you don’t criminalize the drug.”
