Washington state may be one step closer to launching a legal market for magic mushrooms after bipartisan senators filed a bill to legalize psychedelic mushrooms this year. Lawmakers first introduced an earlier version of the psilocybin legalization bill in January 2022, but it had fewer cosponsors and failed to get any traction.
Senator Jesse Salomon reintroduced the legislation last week, unveiling a revised version of the bill with 20 cosponsors. The bill seeks to legalize magic mushrooms in Washington and regulate a psilocybin market for adults aged 21 and older.
According to language from the revised bill, its objective is to compel the legislature to ensure the “establishment of safe, legal and affordable psilocybin service centers.” These centers would be tasked with providing “supported psilocybin experiences” for wellness and personal-growth purposes to Washington state citizens who are at least 21 years old.
The Psilocybin Services Wellness and Opportunity Act (SB 5263) states that the purpose of such psychedelic reform is to improve Washington state citizens’ mental, physical and social well-being. Furthermore, the bill says that psychedelic reform can be helpful in addressing behavioral health disorders among Washington state adults by providing them with psilocybin-assisted therapies under the supervision of a licensed and trained psilocybin service facilitator.
If SB 5263 becomes state law, the state Department of Health would be in charge of licensing and regulating the psychedelic industry that springs from the legislation.
It would also require the establishment of a Washington Psilocybin Advisory Board to advise on critical issues regarding psilocybin and provide lawmakers with information on psilocybin research, best practices for psilocybin-assisted therapy and useful criteria for social opportunities.
The Health Department would be given two years to adopt new regulations for a “comprehensive regulatory framework,” and it would have to start accepting new applications from September 2025. These applications cover everything from manufacturing and testing products to operating service centers and facilitating psilocybin services.
Like the first version of the bill, which eventually failed to gain traction, this new version also calls for a regulatory development window of 18 months. But unlike most of the bills that allow medical marijuana across the country, the bill did not provide any qualifying conditions for patients to access psilocybin and specifically stated that regulators could not predicate access to treatment on the presence of “any particular medical condition.”
The bill will also provide state-level protections for both healthcare providers who offer psilocybin-assisted treatment and workers who participate in the industry.
As more attention is directed at reforming laws around psilocybin, enterprises such as Field Trip Health Ltd. (OTC: FTHWF) (TSX: FTHW) that are actively studying how this substance can be leveraged to treat numerous conditions could have a huge market to serve once breakthroughs are made and approved.
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