Virginia senators have approved a bill in committee to establish a statewide psilocybin advisory board and move the psychedelic to a lower schedule under state statute.
The legislation from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D) passed in the Senate Education and Health Subcommittee on Health Professions in a 6-1 vote on Friday morning.
This comes about a week after a separate Virginia House of Delegates panel rejected a measure to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use for people with serious conditions who obtain a doctor’s recommendation.
Hashmi’s legislation, which now heads to the full committee for consideration, is more narrowly tailored than a proposal she filed last session to decriminalize psilocybin altogether.
Instead, it would reclassify psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule III under state law and establish a Virginia Psilocybin Advisory Board.
Hashmi said in opening remarks on Friday that this reform would help inform future steps to provide alternative treatment options for people whose “medications are not really assisting them,” while “helping them to take care of their critical needs” with psilocybin.
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