New Hampshire lawmakers on Wednesday took up a pair of bipartisan bills to legalize the regulated use of psilocybin for medical purposes.<\/p>\n
At a hearing before the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, members heard public testimony on the proposals: HB 1809 from Rep. Buzz Scherr (D) and HB 1796 from Rep. Michael Moffett (R).<\/p>\n
Both measures seek to create a regulatory pathway for patients with certain conditions to access the psychedelic for therapeutic use through a program overseen by the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). But Moffett\u2019s legislation is more prescriptive about the proposed regulatory framework.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am an unlikely prime sponsor for a measure such as this,\u201d Moffett told fellow lawmakers at the hearing, saying he\u2019s \u201calways been very wary and skeptical of\u201d psychedelics and has \u201calways been a hard no on marijuana for many reasons, to include the fact that I was constantly drug tested myself for many years in the Marine Corps, where I developed a zero tolerance for illegal drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he changed his mid after seeing a presentation on psychedelic therapies at a national veterans conference last summer, where he learned that \u201ca psilocybin treatment option could have value to almost anyone, beyond military people or former military people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scherr, for his part, said there\u2019s a \u201csubstantial amount of research going on currently about the therapeutic uses of psilocybin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research in terms of it helping with those who have treatment-resistant depression is pretty significant at this point,\u201d he said. \u201cResearch in terms of broader use for those suffering from other forms of PTSD is developing. Research for use with people who have certain forms of substance abuse is also developing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenny O\u2019Higgins of the state Department of Health and Human Services said officials have some concerns around the lack of appropriated funds in Moffett\u2019s legislation, saying the department would \u201cnot be able to absorb\u201d the program under its current budget.<\/p>\n
A representative of the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana\u2019s New Hampshire affiliate testified against the proposals, saying that psilocybin is a federally illegal Schedule I drug. She also argued that there is insufficient evidence to support the psychedelic\u2019s therapeutic potential.<\/p>\n
\nHere are the key provisions of HB 1809<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe medical community has always recognized that patients exist with serious conditions that are very resistant to effective treatment,\u201d a statement of purpose for the measure says. \u201cRecently, research has begun to show that certain of those patients have had positive results with the closely supervised use of psilocybin for treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPatients with significant post-traumatic stress disorder, with treatment-resistant clinical depression, and with serious substance use disorder have been shown to benefit from the controlled, therapeutic use of psilocybin in a supervised setting,\u201d it says. \u201cThe purpose of this act is to create a carefully monitored and closely supervised setting in which an approved medical provider can treat a carefully chosen patient with appropriate doses of psilocybin which that same provider has produced for a medical intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are the main details of HB 1796<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of the Therapeutic Psilocybin Act is to allow the beneficial use of psilocybin in a regulated system for alleviating qualified medical conditions,\u201d the bill\u2019s statement of purpose says.<\/p>\n The prospects of either bill advancing this session remain unclear, but lawmakers have been increasingly active in pursuing psychedelics reform in recent years.<\/p>\n Last June, the New Hampshire Senate voted to scrap compromise legislation that would have lowered the state\u2019s criminal penalty for first-time psilocybin possession<\/a> while also creating mandatory minimum sentences around fentanyl.<\/p>\n As originally introduced, the legislation would have completely removed penalties around obtaining, purchasing, transporting, possessing or using psilocybin, effectively legalizing it on a noncommercial basis. However a House committee amended the bill before unanimously advancing it<\/a> last March.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in New Hampshire, the House last week approved a bill to legalize marijuana in the state<\/a>\u2014though its chances of passage in the Senate remain dubious, and the governor has expressed clear opposition to the reform.<\/p>\n Also last week, the chamber passed a proposal to allow medical cannabis dispensaries to become for-profit businesses.<\/p>\n The legalization bill, sponsored by Rep. Jared Sullivan (D), is one of several cannabis proposals filed for the 2026 session, including legislation from Rep. Jonah Wheeler (D) that seeks to put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot that would let voters decide if they want to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older<\/a>, allowing them to \u201cpossess a modest amount of cannabis for their personal use.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) has already threatened to veto any legalization bill that reaches her desk, though the constitutional amendment proposal would not require gubernatorial action.<\/p>\n The governor said in August that her position on the reform\u00a0would not change even if the federal government moved forward with rescheduling the plant<\/a>. Since then, President Donald Trump has directed the attorney general to finalize the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n At a committee meeting last year, Sullivan ultimately made a persuasive argument for advancing his legalization bill, pointing out that\u00a0the House has repeatedly passed similar legislation<\/a>\u00a0and that the chamber should stand its ground, forcing the Senate and governor to again go on record with their opposition to a policy popular among voters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know where it\u2019s going to go. Let\u2019s send a virtue signal,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cLet them be the ones that are pissing off voters who care about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the House also approved a\u00a0bill last week from Rep. Wendy Thomas (D) that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries (known as \u201calternative treatment centers,\u201d or ATCs, in the state) to convert their dispensary licenses to become for-profit entities<\/a>. HB 54, which passed on the consent calendar with other legislation, previously advanced unanimously out of the House Finance Committee.<\/p>\n Part of the motivation behind the legislation is the fact that medical marijuana dispensaries don\u2019t qualify for federal non-profit status. But in the state, they\u2019re considered non-profit organizations, which has resulted in disproportionately increased operating costs.<\/p>\n Other bills filed for 2026 include two proposals to protect the gun rights of medical cannabis patients.<\/p>\n There are also a few pieces of legislation aimed at regulating hemp sales\u2014an issue that\u2019s receiving heightened attention given that Congress passed, and Trump signed, an appropriations bill that would effectively re-criminalize most consumable hemp products.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, after the House added provisions to a Senate-passed bill last year that would allow medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis at home,\u00a0those measures were stripped in conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of CostaPPR<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post New Hampshire Lawmakers Take Up Bipartisan Bills To Legalize Psilocybin For Medical Use<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
New Hampshire lawmakers on Wednesday took up a pair of bipartisan bills to legalize the regulated use of psilocybin for medical purposes. At a hearing before the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, members heard public testimony on the proposals: HB 1809 from Rep. Buzz Scherr (D) andContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85099,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85098\/revisions\/85099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: New Hampshire Lawmakers Take Up Bipartisan Bills To Legalize Psilocybin For Medical Use<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"