Two committees in the California Assembly have given approval to a bill to establish a psychedelics work group to prepare the state for legalization.
Psilocybin (“magic”) mushrooms.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 11 to 0 today to pass Assembly Bill 941, filed by Assemblymember Mari Waldron (R). The committee’s vote comes nine days after it was approved, also unanimously, through the Assembly Health Committee, and a little over three months after Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have legalized certain psychedelics including psilocybin, DMT and ibogaine.
This bill “would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to convene a workgroup to study and make recommendations on the establishment of a framework governing psychedelic-assisted therapy, as defined.”
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is defined as “supervised, lawful medical use of a controlled substance for treatment, including, but not limited to, group counseling and community-based healing, under the care of, administration by, and treatment of a licensed professional in a clinical setting.”
The measure also mandates the workgroup “to send a report to the Legislature containing those recommendations on or before January 1, 2026. The bill would, contingent upon the Legislature enacting a framework governing psychedelic-assisted therapy, authorize the lawful use of hallucinogenic or psychedelic substances for psychedelic-assisted therapy.”
Assemblymember Waldron says psychedelic therapy has “the potential to save countless lives”.
