Rhode Island lawmakers held a hearing on a newly reintroduced bill that would exempt psilocybin from the state’s laws against controlled substances, legalizing possession and home cultivation for personal use.
Members of the House Judiciary Committee discussed the proposal from Rep. Brandon Potter (D) on Tuesday, taking expert testimony on the science and policy landscape surrounding the psychedelic.
“Psilocybin is effectively a natural compound that’s in a variety of mushrooms. It is non-toxic, non-addictive. It’s a natural compound,” Potter said in opening remarks. “There’s an abundance of especially medical research that shows incredible effects for treating people with complicated PTSD, depression, severe anxiety, addiction—just an absolute abundance of medical research from leading medical research institutions.”
“I’m optimistic that we’d be able to actually move this into law this year. And for what this bill does, so we’re clear, this is just simply a decriminalization effort for personal possession,” he said. “So if for nothing else, however you feel about the subject, I think you know most people can agree this is not something where we really should be prioritizing law enforcement action and subjecting people to criminal prosecution for.”
Under the bill, sharing psilocybin—the main psychoactive compound in psychedelic mushrooms—would
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