Connecticut lawmakers have reintroduced a bill to decriminalize psilocybin for adults—despite the fact that the state’s Democratic governor signaled he wasn’t on board with an earlier version of the reform proposal.
The Joint Judiciary Committee submitted the bill on Monday. Possession of up to half an ounce of Psilocybin would be punishable with a $100 fine without any threat of prison time.
Connecticut’s legislators are working on a third consecutive session to promote psilocybin legalization. In 2023 the reform bill passed through the House, but not the Senate. A version was also endorsed by the Judiciary Committee last year.
According to the proposed proposal, any second or subsequent violation of possession would be subjected to a minimum fine amounting $200 and a maximum penalty not exceeding $500. Two separate pleas of guilty or no contest would result in a referral to an alcohol and drug abuse treatment program.
The measure HB7065 would require police to destroy and seize any amount they discover of psychedelic under its provisions. Possession of over a half ounce of psilocybin is a misdemeanor of Class A.
When the proposal came up last year—which involved an informational forum with lawmakers and activists to discuss the therapeutic potential of substances such as psilocybin and potential pathways to allow for regulated access—the office of Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat from Connecticut, said that the bill may not be enacted.
At the time, a spokesperson stated that the governor was concerned with the broad decriminalization. The bill at that time had yet to be filed.
Lamont reportedly also threatened to veto the version of 2023 that would decriminalize possession psilocybin, even though he had championed legislation in 2021 to legalize marijuana and had signed it into law.
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Lamont signed a large-scale budget bill in 2022 that includes provisions to set the state up to provide certain patients with access to psychedelic-assisted treatment using substances like MDMA and psilocybin.
Prior to that, he also signed separate legislation in 2021 that required the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to create a task force to study the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.
Separately, a Connecticut lawmaker also introduced different legislation in 2023 that would have appropriated an unspecified amount of state funds to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the current fiscal year to establish a “psychedelic-assisted therapy pilot program.”
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Kristie Gianpulos is the photographer.
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