Advocates of psychedelic-assisted therapy in California have had a rough few years.
While Democrat-led Oregon and Colorado legalized psychedelic mushrooms and other mind-altering substances, and even Republican-dominated Utah and Texas began exploring their potential to treat mental illness, lawmakers repeatedly shot down similar plans in the Golden State — including when Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a decriminalization bill in 2023.
After another bill last year stalled in committee, which would have legalized the supervised use of psychedelics, proponents have returned with a much more modest plan that they think has legs.
Menlo Park Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat, and San Diego Sen. Brian Jones, a Republican, introduced Senate Bill 751 in February. The bill would set up pilot research projects run by University of California campuses to study the effects of psilocybin — the main psychoactive compound in psychedelic mushrooms — on veterans and former first responders grappling with post-traumatic stress or other mental health issues.
Veterans and first responders “have sacrificed so much for our communities, yet too many are left without effective treatment options,” Becker said.
“SB 751 takes a science-based approach, allowing the state to gather critical data under rigorous oversight before considering broader policy changes,” Becker said.
Though far less ambitious than Democrats’ attempts in recent years to decriminalize psychedelics or legalize their use in supervised settings — like Oregon’s model — the bill has support among veterans and first responders in the psychedelics community because it’s seen as a first step toward broad, legal access — which for many remains the ultimate goal.
Echoing laws passed in Texas and Washington state, the proposal would allow some veterans and former firefighters, police officers and EMTs to enroll in clinical trials testing the effectiveness of psilocybin to treat mental illnesses. It’s unclear how many participants might enroll in these studies, which would sunset in 2031.
“We have to find a way to start the ball rolling,” said Angela Graham-Houweling, a retired Santa Clara County firefighter who used psychedelics to heal from work-related mental health issues and co-founded a nonprofit that pays for active-duty first responders to take psychedelic mushrooms in Mexico.
“This is the best route for now,” she said.
“My hope is that our political leaders pave the way, and find a way through on this,” said Michael H. Young, a U.S. Army veteran and former diplomat who lives in San Francisco.
Young said his work crafting counterterrorism policy on the ground in the Middle East for the U.S. Department of State left him “disillusioned,” anxious and depressed. He needed deeper healing than talk therapy and meditation could offer him and found psychedelics.
At a retreat in Mexico, surrounded by other veterans, Young found a “powerful” healing experience with mushrooms that permanently changed his perspective for the better, he said. He wants others to have the same opportunity.
“The government has an obligation to provide us the medicines to keep us from killing ourselves,” Young said.
The California Coalition for Psychedelic Safety and Education, a parent group that has opposed legalization efforts, did not respond to requests for comment.
California is home to about 1.4 million veterans, the third-largest population of any state. Nationally, about 18 veterans die each day from suicide, and cops and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.
Scientists are increasingly interested in the potential for psychedelics to treat some mental illnesses. Internationally, about 400 clinical trials with psychedelics are in process or have been completed, according to the National Library of Medicine.
The science is promising, but scientists have answered “very little” about the effects of psychedelics on veterans, said Jennifer Mitchell, professor of neurology at UC San Francisco and a top research official at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin a “breakthrough therapy” for depression in 2018. Last year, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs also said research has largely left out veterans and began to fund its own studies on psilocybin and MDMA for the first time since the 1960s.
However, scientific groups say more research is needed about the benefits and risks of psychedelics — including how they may exacerbate mental illnesses in rare situations. In 2023, an off-duty pilot from the East Bay attempted to crash an Alaska Airlines plane with 83 other people on board two days after he took mushrooms. The off-duty pilot, Joseph Emerson of Pleasant Hill, pleaded not guilty and was released from jail pending county and federal trials.
Although this progress is promising for advocates of psychedelic-assisted therapy, worry about health risks and budget concerns have made California a tough political climate.
In 2023, the Legislature passed a bill to decriminalize the personal use of psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics. Newsom vetoed it and asked lawmakers to instead craft regulations governing the use of psychedelics in therapeutic, supervised settings.
San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, went on to introduce a bill to regulate the supervised use of psychedelics. But lawmakers killed it, reportedly unwilling to craft and administer costly regulations in a tight budget environment.
Then, late in the legislative session last summer, Becker and Jones introduced a “narrowly tailored” bill that would have allowed veterans and former first responders to use psilocybin under supervision in three counties. The bill, dubbed the Heal Our Heroes Act, died in committee.
The pair of lawmakers say they’ve addressed problems that undermined the bill’s support last year.
They tweaked the proposal by directing the University of California system to run the pilot program, sparing counties the “burden” of doing so, Becker said.
As for the cost — which is top of mind in Sacramento as the $212 billion California budget remains barely balanced after several years of deficits — the bill would also allow a mix of federal, state and philanthropic funds to pay for the pilot program.
In an interview, Graham-Houweling implored lawmakers to pass the bill. She said she’s witnessed powerful changes in former first responders who take psychedelics in Mexico through her nonprofit’s program.
Denying legal access to these “medicines” in California, she said, is “a crime against humanity — period.”