Supporters call psilocybin ‘next great breakthrough in psychiatry’
New Jersey legislators on Monday took another step toward legalizing psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound found in some mushrooms that supporters consider a breakthrough therapy bound to transform mental health treatment.
The Assembly health committee’s Democratic majority advanced a bill that would provide therapeutic access to psilocybin for adults over 21, despite some committee members questioning whether state action is needed because the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the use of synthetic psilocybin late next year.
The committee heard about an hour of testimony in Trenton from the bill’s supporters, who urged legislators to reject psilocybin’s reputation as a recreational drug and consider its promise in treating chronic psychiatric disorders more effectively than existing therapies.
“This bill really is a no-brainer. You should pass it,” said Neal Usatin of New Jersey for Fungi and Plant Medicine. “The clinical evidence in FDA trials is clear that psilocybin is not only safe and non-habit-forming, it treats depression, anxiety, OCD, addiction, and a number of other mental health indications more effectively than current therapies.”
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the drugs now commonly used to treat many mental health disorders, “aren’t doing enough,” said Jesse MacLachlan of Reason for Hope, a national suicide-prevention nonprofit that supports expanding access to psychedelic-assisted therapies.
“We see that in the form of a veteran suicide crisis, where 22 to 40 veterans are lost to either suicide or substance-related deaths every single day,” MacLachlan said. “And that drives our determination to make a change.”
He called psilocybin “the next great breakthrough in psychiatry.”
Stacy and Jeffrey Swanson, a married couple who both served in the military, testified on behalf of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions. Stacy Swanson told lawmakers that supervised psychedelic-assisted treatment healed her husband’s mental health struggles after years of unsuccessful traditional remedies.
“His treatment was not recreational, and it was not a shortcut. It involved medical screening, preparation, supervision, integration before and afterward. Integration is what allowed him to process what he had carried for years. It reached the roots of trauma in a way that traditional treatment could not,” she said.
Since his treatment, the difference “has been steady and real,” she added.
“He sleeps. Our children feel safe. There is no alcohol numbing the pain. Our home is calm instead of reactive. He shows up in a way our family can feel and not just see. The man next to me is the same man I married, but without the constant internal battle,” she said.
The testimony proved persuasive to most of the panel, including Assemblywoman Melinda Kane (D-Camden), whose son Jeremy was a Marine killed in Afghanistan in 2010. She voted for the bill.
“I know that the loss my family has suffered is terrible,” Kane said. “I also know that there are more losses in our country to suicide than there are to combat deaths.”
Others, though, questioned why they should bother passing a bill, given that a drug manufacturer seeking FDA approval of its synthetic psilocybin is now in its third round of trials and anticipates approval in late 2026 or early 2027.
Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Middlesex) is a nurse and the Assembly’s minority budget officer. She pointed to $6 million in state funding the bill would allocate to carry out its provisions and abstained from the vote over her concerns for a “budget that is really tough.” The record-high $58.8 billion budget lawmakers approved in June included some deep and controversial cuts.
Assemblyman John Azzariti Jr. (R-Bergen), a physician anesthesiologist, also abstained, saying he preferred to wait until the FDA acts.
“If you’re making claims, you should have to prove those claims, those medical claims,” Azzariti said. “We should hold psychedelic medicines, psychedelic drugs, to the same standards as other medicines.”
The bill now goes to the Assembly’s appropriations committee for consideration. It has already passed two Senate committees and awaits a vote before both full chambers. Lawmakers have less than two months to act, with the current two-year legislative session set to end in January.
