A New Hampshire House committee on Wednesday declined to move forward with a bill that would have established a state-regulated therapeutic psychedelic program modeled after the current medical marijuana system, but members of the panel generally agreed that lawmakers should pursue future legislation to expand legal access to substances like psilocybin and LSD.
The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee voted 14–1 to advance a report that notes ongoing research being done into psychedelic-assisted therapy—a project of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Veterans Administration (VA)—and recommends “future legislation to permit patients access to clinical trials and other therapy.”
But for now, lawmakers said, the state isn’t ready to legalize and regulate entheogens that remain federally illegal.
“New Hampshire state law currently prevents research and/or treatments which use Schedule I psychedelic drugs despite the expanding research into this area,” the committee’s statement says. “The Veterans Administration and Massachusetts General Hospital are currently conducting research for a number of disorders using these drugs, and the FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation for some psychedelics. We recommend future legislation to permit patients access to clinical trials and other therapy without the need to cross state lines for care.”
The panel discussed the bill, HB 1693, from Rep. Kevin Verville (R), during a work session Wednesday morning and took action during executive session in the afternoon.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something about a [Journal of the American Medical Association] article comparing psychedelics to existing antidepressants,” Rep. Erica Layon (R) said during the earlier of the two hearings. “But right now, New Hampshire law prohibits a clinical trial from happening in the state with psychedelics because of its status as a controlled substance.”
Layon, who called the bill’s proposal “unworkable” said at the hearing that she was hoping to discuss the issues with Verville, “however, he did not attend the meeting.”
The 28-page measure would have set up so-called alternative treatment centers (ATCs)—the same term used for the state’s existing medical marijuana dispensaries—that could dispense psilocybin, LSD and mescaline to patients with a number of qualifying conditions, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, substance use disorders, sleep disorders, chronic pain, migraine and cluster headaches, personality disorder and a range of other conditions.
Healthcare providers could also certify patients based on “any novel or emergent illness…so long as any efficacy, including self-reports, of Psilocybin has been observed in a study published in a medical or scientific journal, including preprint servers.”
Because so much of the proposal’s language is borrowed from the state’s medical marijuana law, it would allow possession of up to two ounces of “usable psychedelics”—a which is a particularly large amount of LSD.
Rep. Joe Schapiro (D) said during the hearing that in fact feels “that a broader expansion and legalization would be appropriate than the clinical trials, but I can’t imagine that happening.”
“We’ve seen from the attempts to legalize recreational marijuana, you know, the way every element of a bill has to be considered and parsed,” he added. “It seems like any broader expansion of psychedelics would be an enormous amount of work that I don’t see anybody working on in the legislature.”
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Lucy Weber (D) said that she appreciated Layon’s work crafting the committee statement.
“She’s very succinctly expressed the concerns that we had,” Weber said, explaining that lawmakers “don’t want to get in the way of process, but we don’t want to set up a whole new bureaucracy. And I think the statement does that.”
“The concerns we had with the bill as presented was it was far too broad,” she added.
As for efforts in the state to legalize cannabis for adults this session, lawmakers at the last minute narrowly shot down legislation that would have legalized marijuana for adults in the state when House Democrats tabled the legalization measure, effectively killing it.
The move, however, sparked accusations that politicians were using the issue to earn the party votes at the ballot box in November. But most who voted against the bill said they were opposed to the plan on its merits, pointing to the proposal’s state-controlled franchise model, which would have given the state unprecedented sway over retail stores and consumer prices.
A poll released this summer showed 61 support for that bill among New Hampshire residents—just a few percentage points below the 65 percent support that respondents to a separate poll said they have for legalization generally.
Voters are now also less than a month away from electing lawmakers as well as a new governor. Outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu (R) hesitantly supported legalization, but the two major party candidates seeking to replace him are starkly divided on the issue. Democrat Joyce Craig has said she’d support the reform, pointing to potential revenue that could fund housing and schools, while Republican Kelly Ayotte has belittled that plan.
“Joyce Craig can smoke her way to a balanced budget, but I’m going to do it the old-fashioned way,” Ayotte, a former U.S. senator and state attorney general, told local media last month. “We’re going to live within our means.”
During an earlier interview with legalization advocates, Craig said she opposed putting the Liquor Commission at the helm of the cannabis industry, instead favoring smaller, private businesses run by local owners.
Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, also said she believes the state should move quickly to establish its own cannabis industry before the federal government opens state borders to cannabis commerce and favors a legalization structure that disincentivizes large or multi-state operators dominating New Hampshire’s market.
New Hampshire lawmakers worked extensively on marijuana reform issues last session and attempted to reach a compromise to enact legalization through a multi-tiered system that would include state-controlled shops, dual licensing for existing medical cannabis dispensaries and businesses privately licensed to individuals by state agencies. The legislature ultimately hit an impasse on the complex legislation.
Bicameral lawmakers also convened the state commission tasked with studying legalization and proposing a path forward last year, though the group ultimately failed to arrive at a consensus or propose final legislation.
Last May, the House defeated marijuana legalization language that was included in a Medicaid expansion bill. The Senate also moved to table another piece of legislation that month that would have allowed patients and designated caregivers to cultivate up to three mature plants, three immature plants and 12 seedlings for personal therapeutic use.
After the Senate rejected the reform bills in 2022, the House included legalization language as an amendment to separate criminal justice-related legislation—but that was also struck down in the opposite chamber.
A New Hampshire House committee on Wednesday declined to move forward with a bill that would have established a state-regulated therapeutic psychedelic program modeled after the current medical marijuana system, but members of the panel generally agreed that lawmakers should pursue future legislation to expand legal access to substances like psilocybin and LSD. The House Read More