California Senators Kill Bill To Create Psychedelic Therapy Pilot Program For Veterans And Former First Responders

A California Senate committee has declined to advance a bipartisan bill that would have created a psilocybin pilot program for military veterans and former first responders.

After moving through two other panels with unanimous support, the measure from Sens. Josh Becker (D) and Brian Jones (R) was shelved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday—with members declining to take it up or designate it as a two-year bill that could be revived later in the session.

The proposal as amended in a prior committee would have established a pilot program that would have been overseen by the University of California (UC) system. UC would have been requested to study and develop “psilocybin services” for eligible patients in up to five counties across the state in partnership with licensed clinics.

The universities would have been responsible for “protocol design, institutional review board approvals, training of psilocybin facilitators, data collection, and reporting” of the pilot program.

Under the legislation, the state would have also established a “Veterans and First Responders Research Pilot Special Fund,” with continuous appropriations to fund the work.

“Emerging research suggests that psilocybin and psilocyn, when used in a controlled setting, may offer significant benefits in treating mental health disorders, particularly those related to trauma and stress,” the bill’s findings section said.

“Psilocybin should be available to veterans and former first responders in a manner that ensures safety, efficacy, and ethical standards, including use only under appropriate supervision,” it said.

The bill, SB 751, states that UC would have been requested to “compile and submit the pilot program outcomes, data analysis, and recommendations from the university partners” into a report that would have needed to be submitted to the legislature by January 15, 2030.

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Angela Graham-Houweling, executive director of The S.I.R.E.N. Project, which supported the bill, blamed Senate Democratic leadership for its failure.

“If a small minority subset of CA Democratic politicians continue to stand in the way of healing for those who have served, then the voters may need to weigh in,” she told Marijuana Moment in an email. “Texas, New Mexico, Indiana and Utah have now moved past California as a leader in helping veterans and first responders, and the federal government is moving forward on multiple fronts at the VA.”

“This is a sad state of affairs for our state, and the Appropriations Committee should be ashamed for killing such a modest bill,” Graham-Houweling said.

Moving psychedelics reform legislation through the California legislature has proved complex over recent years, with a mix of achievements and setbacks for advocates and stakeholders.

Last year, for example, a Senate committee effectively killed a bill to legalize psychedelic service centers where adults 21 and older could access psilocybin, MDMA, mescaline and DMT in a supervised environment with trained facilitators.

The “Regulated Therapeutic Access to Psychedelics Act” was drafted in a way that was meant to be responsive to concerns voiced by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in 2023 when he vetoed a broader proposal that included provisions to legalize low-level possession of substances such as psilocybin.

Meanwhile, Assemblymember Marie Waldron (R), the lead on the Assembly side, sponsored a separate psychedelics bill last session focused on promoting research and creating a framework for the possibility of regulated therapeutic access that has moved through the Assembly last year with unanimous support.

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