Push to legalize psychedelics returns: After defeat in November, 10 legislators file bills more limited in scope

A vendor bags psilocybin mushrooms at a cannabis market in Los Angeles. AP
Published: 01-28-2025 2:01 PM
Modified: 01-31-2025 12:47 PM |
BOSTON — Less than three months after voters rejected a ballot measure to legalize certain natural psychedelic substances and introduce therapeutic care, legislators have filed 10 bills at the start of this legislative session hoping to push the cause forward.
Some 57% of voters in November rejected Question 4, which would have authorized licensed clinics, home cultivation and legal distribution for five psychedelic substances: psilocybin, psilocin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline and ibogaine. Retail sale of psychedelics, or “psychedelic dispensaries” would have remained barred.
Responding to voters, the bills filed this month are intentionally more limited in scope than Question 4, instead focusing on psilocybin access and research, said state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton.
They have been designed to “bring the opposition to the table,” since voters expressed hesitation about the lack of professional oversight and access to dangerous drugs had the ballot measure passed.
Sabadosa, who has pushed for legal access to so-called plant medicine since 2023, filed a bill calling for psychedelic pilot programs that seek to establish nonprofit treatment centers throughout the state for regulated psilocybin. State Reps. Marjorie Decker, D-Cambridge, and state Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, also filed their own bills for pilot programs.
State Sen. Dylan Fernandez, D-Falmouth, presented a research bill focusing on use by veterans, and state Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge, filed a bill that would establish a task force to study equitable access to entheogenic plants.
Half the bills filed advocated for legal personal consumption of psilocybin.
Voter input collected after the election gave legislators direction for the 10 bills they are putting forth now. Lawmakers worked in conjunction with Massachusetts for Mental Health Options, the referendum committee formed in July 2023 to champion Question 4, to forge a road ahead for what they believe are transformative drugs for combating mental health challenges.
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Respondents were supportive of removing criminal penalties for personal use of natural psychedelics, and roughly two-thirds were supportive of therapeutic access, which resulted in bills with a more narrow focus.
According to Jamie Morey and Graham Moore, co-executive directors for the referendum committee, psilocybin was specifically cited in the 10 bills, as opposed to the four other drugs listed, because of its clinical and observational efficacy, as well as because it is the easiest to cultivate. The substance had also been given “Breakthrough Therapy Designation” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as of last year.
Moore found it reassuring that while only 43% voted in favor of November’s ballot question, all eight communities in the state that had decriminalized the substances before November, including Northampton and Easthampton, voted in favor. To him this fact represents a lack of “buyer’s remorse” in communities that have been open to use of the drugs.
“The direction going forward is letting cities and towns know that psychedelics can be good for communities and safe,” said Moore.
As a legislator, Sabadosa also sees the future of psychedelics as a bottom-up project, and anticipates that the Legislature would become more responsive toward voting on the bills if more municipalities move to decriminalize. Although it is unclear if the bills will get a favorable reception, Sabadosa said it’s reassuring to see bills on the same topic from 10 out of the 200 legislators in the State House.
While Massachusetts for Mental Health Options will dissolve at the end of this month, the nonprofit Mass Healing will be formed and run by Morey and CJ LoConte.
“We were playing catch up to mitigate 50-plus years of societal stigma,” said LoConte, an U.S. Army veteran and one of the committee’s leading volunteers during the campaign to pass Question 4, commenting on its shortcomings in the polls.
“But mental health is such a pervasive problem. When are we going to say enough is enough? This is an opportunity to create systemic change,” said the veteran, who credits psilocybin from saving him from suicidal ideation after his time of service.
Oregon and Colorado are the only states to legalize certain psychedelics, although several states and municipalities throughout the country have decriminalized the substances.