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CARSON CITY — Small quantities of fungi that produces so-called magic mushrooms could quickly be decriminalized underneath a invoice heard by lawmakers Thursday.
An amended version of Senate Bill 242, introduced by Sen. Rochelle Nguyen, D-Las Vegas, would enable people older than 21 to own, use and eat 30 grams of the dried fungi that produces psilocybin, often known as magic mushrooms.
“Twenty-eight grams of fentanyl isn’t the equal of 28 grams of mushrooms and they’re handled, in our legislation, the identical,” Nguyen stated.
The invoice additionally directs the Division of Well being and Human Companies to create a Psychedelic Medicines Working Group that may conduct analysis on therapeutic substances, together with psilocybin. The working group can be required to supply a report back to the 2025 Legislature by Dec. 31, 2024.
Previous to the proposed modification, the invoice would have allowed analysis amenities to use to check using MDMA and mushrooms for the therapy of psychological well being. People over the age of 18 who eat these substances as a part of a kind of accredited research gained’t be in violation of the legislation.
Researchers talking in assist of the invoice stated use of psilocybin has been proven to assist with psychological well being points, together with despair.
“That is analysis in our lab now that we’re , not solely with psilocybin and plenty of different psychedelics, the place we are able to present very readily in areas of the mind which can be actually vital to be linked or reconnected in problems of psychological well being,” stated Dr. Dustin Hines. “These compounds are extremely efficient..”
A number of people and teams spoke in assist of the invoice, together with the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines and the Clark County public defender’s workplace, who stated the invoice is “a typical sense” method to assist deal with the state’s psychological well being disaster.
However a number of teams opposed the invoice, together with the Metropolitan Police Division, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Workplace, town of Henderson and Nevada Psychiatric Affiliation.
Beth Schmidt with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division reminded attendees that psilocybin continues to be thought of a Schedule I drug on the federal stage, and warned in opposition to decriminalization.
“Decriminalization of psilocybin is a menace to public security,” she stated. “Realizing that analysis is underway elsewhere, the query that we ask is: Is Nevada adequately knowledgeable and ready to be the subsequent step to check psilocybin?”
Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Comply with @travery98 on Twitter.
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