https://www.nwpb.org/2025/02/21/bills-to-allow-some-regulated-access-to-psilocybin-unlikely-to-move-forward/NW Public Broadcasting
Washington state lawmakers still can’t pass bills to allow for some legal access to psychedelics.
With Feb. 21 as the cutoff for bills to move out of policy committees, two pieces of legislation that would have allowed regulated and supervised access to psilocybin for adults won’t be moving forward — Senate Bill 5201 and House Bill 1433. The bills faced opposition from state psychiatric and medical groups, as well as advocates for psychedelics.
This is the fourth year that state Sen. Jesse Salomon, who is the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 5201, has introduced legislation like this. Salomon said it has been an uphill battle to move his fellow lawmakers on the issue, and that advocates who think the legislation doesn’t go far enough are slowing progress.
“Advocating against the bill and advocating for (decriminalization) is confusing the issue, and it’s getting legislators on different sides,” Salomon said. “It makes it even harder to pass a middle of the road bill.”
But Cole Schrim is fine with slow, if that means it’s done right.
“ What the bill does is it says it’s only going to be delegalized for people who have this privilege and who are willing to use this type of setting, or for whom this setting works,” said Schrim, who is a licensed therapist in Tacoma and founder of the Tacoma Psychedelic Society. “And that, to me, is unacceptable.”
Schrim, who has found the use of psychedelics helpful in their personal, professional and spiritual lives, founded the Tacoma Psychedelic Society with the intent of expanding access.
“ These are natural fungi that grow all over the Pacific Northwest, and to think that this could change someone’s life, but it’s considered criminal to even ingest a fungus — it just blew my mind,” Schrim said.
Recently, a number of Washington cities and one county have taken a stance on decriminalizing the substances, and Schrim said that support lays a promising landscape for making that happen statewide.
On the other hand, groups like the the Washington State Psychiatric Association, the Washington State Medical Association and the Washington State Public Health Association said the framework being proposed would not be good for medicine. The organizations urged lawmakers to wait for further research.
What the bills were trying to do
The bills would have established a state regulatory framework for the use of psilocybin, one type of psychedelic.
“ This bill is a balanced approach. It’s nonprofit, clinical and supervised. It’s not recreational, but we’re in the middle and we have opposition coming from two different sides,” Aaron Loehr, with the Coalition for Better Community Health, said at a public hearing in support of the Senate bill. “All testimony today will hear that it’s needed. The only question is when and how.”
Salomon said there is research and testimony to show how this treatment can be life-changing for people, and he wants that to be accessible within Washington.
For instance, research from Johns Hopkins showed psilocybin as an effective treatment for depression.
“ We are going through a mental health crisis in this country. We don’t have an answer for it, let’s be honest. And so this is the only thing that I see that gives me a lot of hope,” Salomon said.
The legislation would have created the Washington Psilocybin board to provide assistance to the Washington State Department of Health in rulemaking and establishing service centers for the use of this substance. A public information officer for the state’s health department said they could not make anyone available for an interview and that the department does not have an official position on the legislation.
Had the legislation passed, use of psilocybin at the service centers would have been available to adults 21 and older. Some who spoke in opposition to the bill at a public hearing expressed concern that the regulation would only allow access to psilocybin and not other natural psychedelics.
But Salomon said he wanted to create legislation that could pass. He said he is a proponent of making this treatment accessible to Washingtonians, but believes there needs to be supervision for it to be safe.
“ That’s why I created a … setting for its use with counseling before and after. So you can have a powerful experience, but do it safely,” Salomon said.
Other states have made moves to open the doors to accessing these substances. Oregon and Colorado passed ballot initiatives to create service centers, whereas Utah passed a bill that allowed for a pilot program to test efficacy.
Passing state legislation on this is a different landscape, Salomon said. Psychedelics are still classified as a Schedule 1 drug.
“ I’m scoping it to what I think can pass and do good, and I don’t think that, at this point in time, a decriminalization bill could pass,” Salomon said.
Pushback came from the Washington State Psychiatric Association, which took issue with how the legislation was going about proposing treatment of medical conditions.
“ The proposal before you is what appears to be a recreational use framework with a medical veneer,” said Katie Kolan, a lobbyist speaking for the association. Kolan took issue with references to psychiatric disorders being used in this sort of framework.
“ Our physicians are deeply interested in what this drug can do and of course would support its study and further use,” Kolan said. “But in this framework is not good for science and medicine, and we would objectively oppose.”
Then there’s those who think the bills don’t go far enough.
“ I support a service center model if and only if it is accompanied by a full state decriminalization amendment, or a subsequent bill to decriminalization,” Schrim said.
Schrim acknowledged and said they are in support of people having access to psychedelics as a treatment center, because for some people, that might be the only way they feel safe. But, Schrim is of the mindset that there needs to be complete decriminalization so that others can experience the power of these substances where they might feel most comfortable, such as in their home.
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Bills to allow some, regulated access to psilocybin unlikely to move forward
