Virginia lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have allow people with serious mental health conditions to possess and use psilocybin mushrooms with a doctor’s recommendation.
The legislation from Del. Dawn Adams (D) wouldn’t have legalized the psychedelic per se, but it would have provided an affirmative defense for those who use it to treat “refractory depression or post-traumatic stress disorder or to ameliorate end-of-life anxiety.”
While the bill was revised from an earlier version that Adams sponsored last year to more narrowly focus on medical uses of psilocybin, a House Courts of Justice subcommittee voted 5-3 to table the proposal, effectively killing it for the session.
The new measure would have additionally included legal protections against state-level prosecutions for doctors and pharmacists who distributed psilocybin for therapeutic purposes. State drug laws would have been amended to make non-medical possession of the psychedelic a Class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a maximum $500 fine.
Adams told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Wednesday that the Virginia legislature tends to move more slowly on drug policy reform issues, so she didn’t have “extremely high hopes” that her bill would advance this session.
“I had
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