Bipartisan California senators and assemblymembers have filed a bill to create a psilocybin pilot program for military veterans and first responders—the latest in a series of attempts by lawmakers to enact psychedelics reform in the state.
It was led by Sen. Josh Becker and Brian Jones, both Democrats, would create a California Health and Human Services Agency pilot program to “provide research and development of services utilizing psilocybin for specific populations”. This could be done in five California counties.
It would also be able to form partnerships with universities affiliated with University of California. UC, however, will have the responsibility of overseeing each pilot local program, including protocol development, approvals by institutional review boards, facilitator training, data collection and reporting.
This measure was filed on Friday. It states: “This bill would require that each local program pilot partner with community-based services such as mental health programs, veterans centers, hospices or any other local providers of care who are able to provide the service to the population.” This bill requires the agency to provide specific information regarding the pilot program by the end of January 2030.
According to the bill, CHHSA would be funded by a continuous funding of a special fund for veterans and first responders research.
A findings section of the legislation—which is also cosponsored by eight other lawmakers, including longtime psychedelics reform advocate Sen. Scott Wiener (D)—states that research “suggests that psilocybin and psilocyn, when used in a controlled setting, may offer significant benefits in treating mental health disorders, particularly those related to trauma and stress.”
The FDA has also granted breakthrough designation to a treatment using psilocybin for treating treatment-resistant depressive disorders.
The report states: “Psilocybin is available for veterans and ex-first responders, but only in ways that guarantee safety, efficacy and ethical standards. Use should also be under the supervision of qualified professionals.” California can run federally-regulated pilot tests of psilocybin in partnership with licensed community health care facilities to see if it can provide psilocybin to first responders and veterans in an effective and beneficial manner.
This new program will be aimed at “veterans, inactive first-responders, and those with end-of life distress or post-traumatic disorder as defined by the program criteria, and other conditions that are specified locally.”
In the proposed bill, CHHSA is required to compile “the pilot program results, data analyses, and university partner recommendations” and turn them into a document that must be sent to the Legislature by 15 January 2030.
California’s legislature is a complex place. Advocates and stakeholder groups have experienced both successes and failures in recent years.
In the past, a Senate Committee effectively killed a Bill to Legalize Psychedelic Service Centers where Adults 21 years and older can access MDMA, DMT, and psilocybin in a controlled environment under trained facilitators.
It was drafted to respond to the concerns expressed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in 2023 when he vetoed a broader proposal that included provisions to legalize low-level possession of substances such as psilocybin.
Assemblymember Marie Waldron, the leader on the Assembly’s side, has sponsored an independent psychedelics law last session that focused on research and created a framework to allow for regulated access therapeutically. This bill was unanimously supported by the Assembly in the past year.
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Californians who wanted to legalize psilocybin in November 2024 did not collect enough signatures by the deadline.
Another campaign filed and then abruptly withdrew an initiative to create a $5 billion state agency tasked with funding and promoting psychedelics research in 2023.
The third campaign, launched in late 2023 and aimed at legalizing possession and cultivation, included substances such as psilocybin and LSD. It also proposed to legalize DMT, MDMA and ibogaine. They could be purchased for medical use by a physician.
The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) later released its review of that proposal, outlining not only the plan’s policy implications but also its potential fiscal impacts on the state—which the report calls “various” and “uncertain.”
In the meantime, reforms are being implemented at a local level by some California municipalities. Eureka adopted, last October, a city resolution to decriminalize plants and fungi that are psychedelic and made enforcement laws against their personal use, cultivation and possessing a lower priority. The city of Eureka is the at least fifth local authority in the state that has adopted the policy. Others include San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz and Arcata.
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