New Jersey Considers Reducing Psilocybin Possession Penalties

Lawmakers in New Jersey’s Assembly Judiciary Committee have advanced a bill that would lower possession penalties for psilocybin mushrooms from a potential 5-year prison sentence to a maximum $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

New Jersey’s Assembly Judiciary Committee on Monday advanced a bill to lower the penalty for possessing up to one ounce of psilocybin mushrooms from a potential five-year prison sentence to a maximum $1,000 fine and six months in jail, NJ.com reports. The measure drops the classification from a third-degree crime to a disorderly person offense.

Psilocybin decriminalization was included as an amendment to the cannabis legalization bill previously approved by the Senate, but Assembly leaders would not vote on a bill that included psilocybin reforms. Assemblyman James Kennedy (D), the bill’s sponsor, explained the standalone measure is “simpler than what appears on the surface,” describing it as a “downgrading of the charges.”