In February, New Jersey reduced criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of psilocybin, as well as legalized cannabis. The MAPS Policy and Advocacy team has been working closely with California Senator Scott Wiener, who introduced Senate Bill 519 (“SB519”) to decriminalize the personal possession, personal use, and social sharing of certain psychedelic substances. See MAPS’ press release here.
Drug policy reform bills have been introduced in a number of other states as well, including Massachusetts, Washington, Texas, and Missouri. Introduced bills include a range of approaches to drug policy including establishing committees to gather information on potential regulatory schemes applicable to psychedelic substances, creating therapeutic access to certain substances through state “right to try” systems or clinical research processes, reducing criminal penalties for possession and use of certain substances, and/or elimination of criminal penalties for some or all substances.
Drug policy reform initiatives and medicalization processes are shifting the prevalence and content of the social narrative about psychedelics. As a result, propertization and commercialization approaches to psychedelics have become topics of much discussion. A number of legal professionals and psychedelic business watchers have taken note of a potential trend in patent applications towards the inclusion or direct focus on products and services related to psychedelics. Read more about this in this article and get a glimpse at perspective from MAPS Founder and Executive Director Rick Doblin, Ph.D., on the role of patenting in the psychedelic market in this Twitter thread.
