The marijuana industry will remain without access to many services after Congress failed to act this year, the GAO looks at how the drug czar's office is performing, and more.

Marijuana Banking Reform Dead in This Congress. Efforts to provide state-legal marijuana businesses with access to banking and financial services have come to naught in this Congress. The push has been on to get the SAFE Banking Act (HR 1996) through the Senate after it passed the House on seven different occasions, most recently in July. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never called it for a vote and he and his Senate allies repeatedly blocked it from being attached to various spending bills as they held out for a full-blown legalization bill. One last chance for the act was the omnibus spending bill passed Tuesday, but it didn't include the act, either. This time, though, it was blocked not by Schumer but by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Psychedelics

California Psychedelic Decriminalization Bill is Back. Four months after state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) pulled his bill to decriminalize certain psychedelics when it was gutted in committee, the bill has been refiled. Senate Bill 58 would decriminalize magic mushrooms and ayahuasca -- but not LSD or MDMA -- and is being backed by veterans and mental health professionals. The bill decriminalizes only plant- or fungi-based psychedelics.

Drug Policy

GAO: Office of National Drug Control Policy Met Some Strategy Requirements but Needs a Performance Evaluation Plan. The Government Accountability Office reported Monday on the performance of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office) and found that the 2022 strategy "fully met some legal requirements, including setting long-range, measurable goals to address drug misuse. The Strategy partially met others related to identifying the resources to treat substance use disorders. But, it didn't include a systematic plan for increasing data collection."

Also, "The 2022 Strategy and accompanying documents vary in their level of compliance with selected statutory requirements. The Strategy fully met some requirements, including those related to comprehensive, long-range, quantifiable goals, and targets to accomplish those goals. The Strategy partially met other selected requirements, including those related to identifying resources for the treatment of substance use disorders. The Strategy does not address some statutory requirements, including some related to future planning. For example, the Strategy is to contain a systematic plan for increasing data collection, including to enable real time surveillance of drug control threats. However, as of December 2022, ONDCP has not created such a plan. GAO recommended in 2019 that ONDCP routinely implement an approach to meet the requirements for the 2020 Strategy and future iterations. Doing so will better position ONDCP to ensure that future strategies completely address all of the statutory requirements."

Irish opposition parties are talking drug reform, the Congressional Research Service issues a report on how to get around legal proscriptions on safe injection sites, and more.

Psychedelics

Berkeley Ponders Becoming First City to Decriminalize Not Just Natural Psychedelics But LSD, Too. A proposed ordinance to decriminalize natural psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms that has been under study in the city for the past three years may be expanded to include the synthetic hallucinogen LSD as well. A pair of Berkeley community health commissioners are promoting the move, saying that LSD meets the definition of a psychedelic and that "nobody deserves to go to jail for having a psychedelic experience." They have now rewritten the 2019 proposed ordinance to include LSD, prompting Decriminalize Nature, the original sponsors o the ordinance to now oppose it. The Community Health Commission is set to vote Tuesday on whether to refer the rewritten ordinance to the city council. At least 15 towns or cities across the US have passed natural psychedelic decriminalization or lowest priority ordinances, but Berkeley's would be the first to include LSD.

Harm Reduction

Congressional Research Service Provide Options for Allowing Safe Injection Sites The service, a nonpartisan agency that provides information on all kinds of issues to Congress, has issued a report highlighting the "uncertainty" of the federal government's position on safe injection sites, but also pointing out that the facilities could operate securely if Congress passed legislation barring the Justice Department from interfering with them, similar to actions it has taken to allow state medical marijuana laws to be implemented. The Trump administration Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block a Philadelphia safe injection site from opening, and the Biden Justice Department has so far shown much less enthusiasm for attacking the harm reduction facilities, but their fate remains uncertain. While the Biden administration is evaluating the legality of the facilities, CRS said: "Congress could resolve that uncertainty by enacting legislation. If Congress decided to allow supervised consumption sites to operate, it could consider the breadth of such authorization. One option would be to exempt supervised consumption sites from CSA control entirely" Or Congress could approve a temporary spending bill rider "to exempt from federal prosecution facilities operating in compliance with state and local law, as it has done with state-sanctioned medical marijuana activities." A third option "would be for Congress to impose specific registration requirements for supervised consumption sites under the CSA, as it has done for entities that administer medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction," CRS continued. The report is Recent Developments in Opioid Regulation Under the Controlled Substances Act.

International

.Two opposition parties are championing major reforms in drug policy, albeit with two distinct proposals. People Before Profit's Gino Kenny has filed a private members' bill to decriminalize the possession of up to seven grams of marijuana, while the Labor Party is proposing a broader drug decriminalization bill. Kenny said marijuana prohibition is "a waste of time and resources" and that "there is a groundswell of opinion for a different narrative and a different status quo." The Labor Party, meanwhile is set to file its drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, with proponents arguing again that persecuting drug users was a waste of the police and the courts' time. But Minister of State at the Department of Health Frank Feighan said that the current government follows a drug strategy that embodies a "health-led rather than a criminal justice approach to drug use," it has no plans to decriminalize any drugs. 

Activists in Denver opened psychedelic floodgates for the United States with their successful psilocybin decriminalization initiative in 2019. Since that time, the trickle of bills and initiatives seeking to undo the criminalization of psychedelics has turned into a torrent.

In 2020, Oregon and Washington, DC broke things open even wider with Oregon's therapeutic psilocybin initiative and DC's entheogenic plant decrim. (Oregon also passed the broader general drug decrim initiative). A number of towns and cities, most notably in California, Massachusetts, and Michigan, have subsequently enacted psychedelic reforms.

This year, psychedelic reform measures are popping up like mushrooms after a rain shower, with serious decriminalization or legalization efforts in several states, and either therapeutic or study efforts (or therapeutic study efforts) in many more. Many, perhaps most, of these bills will not pass this year, but then, legislating controversial topics is seldom a single-year process. Initiatives probably have a better chance of success -- provided they can make it to the ballot.

With a big tip of the hat to Ballotpedia and Marijuana Moment, here's is what we've got going in 2022:

California

There are two different paths to psychedelic legalization this year, one via the legislature and one as a potential November ballot initiative.

Senate Bill 519 would legalize the possession and unremunerated sharing of psilocybin (2 grams, or 4 grams of magic mushrooms), psilocin, DMT (2 grams), LSD (0.01 gram), MDMA (4 grams), and mescaline for people 21 and older. The bill passed the Senate last year, but sponsor Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) put it on pause, signaling he needed more time to build support in the Assembly.

Regardless of what happens in Sacramento, activists with Decriminalize California have drafted the California Psilocybin Initiative of 2022 , which "decriminalizes under state law the cultivation, manufacture, processing, distribution, transportation, possession, storage, consumption, and retail sale of psilocybin mushrooms, the hallucinogenic chemical compounds contained in them, and edible products and extracts derived from psilocybin mushrooms."

Whether the initiative will qualify for the ballot will be known soon; campaigners have only until March 13 to come up with 623,212 valid voter signatures. As of mid-February, they had not reported gathering 25 percent of the signatures, as is required when that benchmark is reached, so that is not a good sign.

Colorado

New Approach PAC, which supported the Oregon therapeutic psilocybin initiative in 2020, as well as various marijuana legalization initiatives, is supporting a pair of psychedelic reform initiatives, both known as the Natural Medicine Healing Act. The first would legalize the possession, cultivation and an array of entheogenic substances, as well as establish a regulatory model for psychedelics therapy. The other would initially legalize psilocybin and psilocin alone for personal adult use while and allow for their sale and administration in a therapeutic setting.

Meanwhile, activists with Decriminalize Nature Boulder County have filed the Legal Possession and Use of Entheogenic Plants and Fungi initiative, which would allow people 21 and over to possess, cultivate, gift and deliver psilocybin, psilocyn, ibogaine, mescaline and DMT. The initiative would also allow psychedelic services for therapeutic, spiritual, guidance, or harm reduction purposes with or without accepting payment.

Both initiatives will need 124,632 valid voter signatures by August 8 to qualify for the November ballot.

Florida

State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Brook (D) has filed Senate Bill 348, which would require the state to research the medicinal benefits of psychedelic substances such as ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin. The bill directs the state Health Department to "conduct a study evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies" such as those substances, "in treating mental health and other medical conditions," such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. A companion version of the bill, House Bill 193 has been filed in the House. Neither has moved since last fall, though.

Hawaii

A bill to set up a state working group to study the therapeutic effects of psilocybin mushrooms, Senate Bill 3160, won approval in the Senate Health Committee this month and now awaits a Senate floor vote. Companion legislation, House Bill 2400, is awaiting action in the House.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 738 would decriminalize psilocybin by removing from the state's schedule of controlled substances and requiring the establishment of therapeutic psilocybin treatment centers, which was filed more than a year ago, awaits action in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Iowa

There are a trio of psilocybin bills that are all technically still alive, although they were filed a year ago and have yet to see action. House File 549 would deschedule psilocybin, but a Public Safety subcommittee recommended indefinite postponement last March, and it remains postponed indefinitely. House File 636 would set up a regime for therapeutic psilocybin, and House File 480 would decriminalize certain psychedelics for use by a patient diagnosed with a terminal illness or a life-threatening disease or condition. Neither of those bills have moved out of committee.

Kansas

House Bill 2465 would decriminalize the possession of less than 100 grams of psilocybin and make possession of more than 100 grams a misdemeanor. The bill would also legalize the home cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms. Introduced last month, the bill is now before the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice.

Maine

Legislative Document 1582 would enact "the Maine Psilocybin Services Act, which establishes a regulatory framework in order to provide psilocybin products to clients in Maine." Although it is not yet officially dead, it failed to get reported out of the House Health and Human Services Committee earlier this month.

Maryland

A pair of complementary bills, House Bill 1367and Senate Bill 709, would create "the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Alternative Therapies Fund to support the study of the effectiveness of and improving access to alternative therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans." While there has been a Senate hearing on its bill, neither bill has moved out of committee yet.

Massachusetts

House Bill 1494would establish an interagency task force to study the public health and social justice implications of legalizing the possession, consumption, transportation, and distribution of naturally cultivated entheogenic plants and fungi. It is currently before the Judiciary Committee.

Michigan

Sen. Jeff Irwin (D) filed Senate Bill 631 last September. It would legalize the possession, cultivation, and delivery of plant- and fungi-derived psychedelics, such as mescaline and psilocybin. The bill would free people from criminal liability except for "receiving money or other valuable consideration for the entheogenic plant or fungus." In other words, no commercial sales, but people can charge a "reasonable fee for counseling, spiritual guidance, or a related service that is provided in conjunction with the use of an entheogenic plant or fungus under the guidance and supervision of an individual providing the service."

Meanwhile, activists with Decriminalize Nature, Decriminalize Nature Michigan, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy earlier this month filed the Michigan Initiative for Community Healing, which would legalize the use and possession of a broad range of natural entheogens and allow for "supervision, guidance, therapeutic, harm reduction, spiritual, counseling, and related supportive services with or without remuneration."

The measure has yet to be approved for signature gathering -- a decision on that will come next month -- and if and when it is, it will need 340,047 valid voter signatures by May 27 to qualify for the November ballot.

New Hampshire

A bipartisan group of legislators have filed House Bill 1349-FN, which would decriminalize the possession of psilocybin mushrooms. The bill would decriminalize the possession of up to 12 grams of 'shrooms, enough for several psychedelic experiences. The clock is ticking on this one; it must clear Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee by March 10 or it dies.

New York

Assemblyman Pat Burke (D) has filed a bill, Assembly Bill 8569, that would legalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes and create facilities where the mushrooms could be grown and provided to patients. It is a set-up similar to what Oregon voters approved last year. The bill provides a list of qualifying medical conditions but also says psilocybin could be recommended "for any conditions" certified by a practitioner. The Department of Health would be responsible for providing a training course for practitioners and licensing the psilocybin centers.

Meanwhile, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D/WF) has filed Assembly Bill 6065, which decriminalizes psilocybin. That bill has been referred to Assembly Health Committee.

Oklahoma

State Reps. Daniel Pae (R) and Logan Phillips (R) have filed a pair of bills that would promote research into psilocybin's therapeutic potential, and one of them would also decriminalize small-time possession of the drug. The bills are designed to give lawmakers different options to reach similar objectives, but Pae's bill would also decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce and half of psilocybin. Pae's bill, House Bill 3414, has been referred to House Public Health Committee, while Phillips' bill, House Bill 3174, =has been referred to House Rules Committee.

Pennsylvania

Rep. Tracy Pennicuick (R-Montgomery County) filed House Bill 1959, "Providing for research and clinical studies of psilocybin, for duties of Department of Health, for duties of institutional review boards, for duties of authorized psilocybin manufacturers, for duties of approved investigators and for reports" last October. It was referred to the House Health Committee, where it has remained ever since.

Utah

Rep. Brady Brammer (R-Highland) has filed House Bill 167, which would create a Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force that would "study and make recommendations on drugs that may assist in treating mental illness." Although not mentioned specifically in the bill, supporters say psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, is the drug most likely to be considered by the task force. The bill passed the House last week and now heads for the Senate.

Vermont

Rep. Brian Cins (D/P) filed House Bill 309, "An act relating to decriminalizing certain chemical compounds found in plants and fungi that are commonly used for medicinal, spiritual, religious, or entheogenic purposes" 51 weeks ago. It has sat in the House Judiciary Committee without moving ever since, although it did get a hearing in January.

Virginia

In January, the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee voted to delay consideration of a bill to decriminalize a wide range of psychedelics, House Bill 898, until 2023. The move came even after the bill was amended by its sponsor, Del. Dawn Adams (D), to only apply to medical practitioners and people using psychedelics with a practitioner. The object for the delay is to build support and try again next year. A similar bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 262, remains alive.

Washington

State Senators Jesse Salomon (D) and Liz Lovelett (D) have introduced a bill that would allow people to use psilocybin and psilocin, the psychoactive ingredients in magic mushrooms, with the assistance of a trained and state-licensed psilocybin services administrator. The bill, Senate Bill 5660, is titled the Psilocybin Wellness and Opportunity Act. People would have to go to a licensed service center to partake, unless they suffer certain medical conditions or are unable to travel, in which case they could receive psilocybin at home and meet remotely with a facilitator. The bill got a Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee hearing earlier this month, but remains in committee.

There is also likely to be a ballot initiative to broadly decriminalize drugs in 2022, similar to what neighboring Oregon voters passed in 2020. That effort, which was foiled in 2020 because of the pandemic, is being led by Commit to Change WA.

A new front in the war against the war on drugs has opened up. It has been less than two years since voters in Denver decriminalized the possession of magic mushrooms, but since then, a number of cities have moved in a similar direction. More dramatically, in last November's elections, Oregon voted to allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the primary active ingredient in those mushrooms (as well as voting to decriminalize the possession of all drugs) and Washington, DC, voted to effectively decriminalize "natural entheogens" by making them the lowest law enforcement priority.

This year, psychedelic reform is making its way to statehouses around the country -- and it has already scored its first victory in New Jersey (see below). Spurred by the potential of psychedelics in treating mental health disorders as well as by the dawning recognition that these drugs are just not that dangerous, and just possibly the racial and class composition of psychedelic aficionados, the movement to end the war on psychedelics is buzzing like never before.

The movement is not without controversy even among drug reformers, with some decrying "psychedelic exceptionalism" and demanding the decriminalization of all drugs, and others wondering why natural psychedelics like psilocybin should be treated differently from synthetic ones like LSD, but those debates are for another article. Here, we simply marvel at the rapid movement on the psychedelic front as we review what is popping up in the state legislatures.

And here is what is going on (with a big tip of the hat to Marijuana Moment, which provides a list of marijuana, psychedelic, and other drug reform bills to its paying subscribers):

California -- Psychedelic Decriminalization

Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) and three cosponsors have filed Senate Bill 519, which would make it legal for persons 21 and over to possess and share psilocybin and psilocyin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline, LSD, ketamine, and MDMA. The bill would also mandate that the Department of Public Health create a working group to make recommendations to the legislature on the regulation and therapeutic use of these substances. The bill has been referred to the Public Safety and Health committees and is set for a hearing on April 6.

Connecticut -- Psilocybin Health Benefits Study

Rep. Josh Elliott (D-Hamden) and five cosponsors have filed HB 06296, which would create a task force to study the health benefits of psilocybin. The measure has been before the Joint Committee on Public Health since January 29.

Florida -- Therapeutic Psilocbyin

Reps. Mike Grieco (D-Miami-Dade) and Nick Duran (D-Miami-Dade) have filed HO549, which would create a path for the use of psilocybin as a mental health treatment by establishing a Psilocybin Advisory Board and ordering the Health Department to adopt rules and regulations and exceptions for the therapeutic administration of psilocybin. The bill would also make psilocybin possession offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. It is now in the Professions and Public Health Services Subcommittee of the Health and Human Services Committee, and has also been referred to two more subcommittees.

Iowa -- Therapeutic Psilocybin

Rep. Jeff Shipley (R-Birmingham) has filed House File 636, which would create the Psilocybin Services Act with the Department of Public Health in charge of developing rules and regulations allowing for the therapeutic administration of psilocybin. The bill envisions licensed psilocybin service centers, psilocybin service facilitators, and psilocybin testing laboratories. It is currently before the Senate Public Safety Committee. The bill is a fallback for Shipley, whose earlier House File 459, which would have simply decriminalized psilocybin and psilocyin, has already been killed in subcommittee.

New Jersey -- Reducing Psilocybin Penalties

Senator Nick Scutari (D-Linden) filed S3256, which lessens the penalty for the possession of any amount of psilocybin from a third degree misdemeanor to a disorderly persons offense punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. The bill passed both the Assembly and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in February.

New York -- Psilocybin Decriminalization

Rep. Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) has filed AO6065, which would decriminalize psilocybin and psilocin by deleting them from the state's register of controlled substances. The bill was referred to the Assembly Health Committee on March 8.

Texas -- Therapeutic Study

State Rep. Steve Dominguez (D-Brownsville) has filed House Bill 1802, which calls for a study by the Health Department and the Texas Medical Board of the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies including MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine for the treatment of mental health and other medical conditions, including chronic pain and migraines. The bill was referred to the House Public Health Committee on March 11.

Vermont -- Natural Psychedelic Decriminalization

Rep. Brian Cina (D) and nine cosponsors have filed H0309, which would decriminalize the possession of ayahuasca, DMT, ibogaine, peyote, and psilocybin and psilocin and "any plants or fungi containing the substances" by removing them from the state's schedule of regulated drugs. The bill has been in the Committee on the Judiciary since February.

We will have to check back on this once the legislators have gone home.