New York Lawmakers Discuss Competing Psychedelics Reform Bills Ahead Of Key Deadline

With just a month left before the end of New York’s legislative session, lawmakers sponsoring differing psychedelics reform legislation recently participated in a discussion on the path forward for psilocybin in the Empire State.
 

Assemblymembers Linda Rosenthal (D) and Pat Burke (D) talked about their competing proposals at the virtual symposium, hosted by the Sanctuary for Independent Media, late last month. About 150 people attended the event, with the Zoom chat flooded with activists, doctors and concerned citizens from around the state.

Rosenthal has sponsored two psychedelics reform bills in the legislature: one to create a “psychedelic research institute” tasked with studying the therapeutic potential of the substances for certain conditions and making policy recommendations, and another to broadly decriminalize psilocybin.

“We have more than enough evidence from 7,000 years of use [that psychedelics are effective], but also very mainstream universities where researchers say ‘yes, this works.’ That’s enough for me,” Rosenthal said. “Let’s stop with the interim steps. We’ve waited long enough.”