Maryland Task Force Recommends Legalizing Natural Psychedelics

The Maryland Task Force on Responsible Use of Natural Psychedelic Substances last week delivered a 373-page report to lawmakers that advises a multi-phase approach to legalizing natural psychedelics, Maryland Matters reports.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed the law creating the task force last year. The 19-person task force was charged with investigating a “safe, equitable, and evidence-informed, statewide approach to natural psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline excluding peyote.”

The report suggests that lawmakers first enact reforms for psilocybin — the substance in psychedelic mushrooms — by having law enforcement deprioritize personal possession and cultivation and by establishing an advisory board to pursue therapeutic psilocybin protocols. The report also included expungement policies among the task force’s initial recommendations.

The task force recommended that the state follow the establishing of clinical access to psilocybin with the “full operation and expansion” of the industry, including commercial sales. The report also suggested that lawmakers weigh their experience with the psilocybin reforms described above when considering reforms for other natural psychedelics.

Currently, only Oregon and Colorado have established therapeutic psilocybin programs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave psilocybin a breakthrough therapy designation in 2018 to expedite research on the drug after studies found it had great potential against treatment-resistant depression.