Minnesota weighs tightly controlled medical psilocybin program

Minnesota lawmakers are debating three psilocybin, or "magic mushroom," bills, with momentum shifting away from full decriminalization toward a narrowly drawn medical‑only program that would operate under far stricter rules than the state’s cannabis system. A Senate committee heard, but is unlikely to advance, a proposal to decriminalize psilocybin for all adults 21 and over; instead, legislators are steering a medical framework to the House Veterans Committee next week, reflecting intense lobbying by veterans who say illegal psilocybin therapy pulled them back from the brink. The draft medical bill would cap enrollment at 1,000 patients in the first three years, require both patient and facility licensing, and mandate that medical professionals be present during nearly all treatments. Doctors involved in clinical trials, including addiction specialist Dr. Patty Dickmann, told lawmakers psilocybin appears especially promising for PTSD, depression and substance‑use disorders by forcing patients to confront, not numb, trauma, and they reported seeing no evidence of psilocybin addiction. For Twin Cities residents — particularly veterans and people in treatment at metro hospitals and clinics — any eventual law will determine whether supervised psychedelic therapy becomes a legal, local option or remains an underground, unregulated market with all the usual risks.