Illinois House committee discuses legalizing ‘magic mushrooms’ for medical purposes

CHICAGO (WGEM) – Illinois lawmakers are looking for new ways to help people struggling with behavioral health issues in the state. Tuesday, the state House Mental Health and Addiction Committee held a hearing in Chicago looking into psychedelics as a potential treatment tool.

“We are in the midst of a behavioral health crisis in this country and in this state. And that includes mental health, it includes addiction, it includes an urgent need for trauma support,” said state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, the committee’s chair.

This isn’t the first committee hearing. Lawmakers have already held subject matter hearings on the state’s behavioral health care shortage and how to spend opioid settlement dollars to increase access to care.

Tuesday, they discussed a less traditional form of care, psychedelic drugs. The specifically talked about psilocybin, which is also known as “magic mushrooms.”

“Psychedelic medicines work in a completely different manner than traditional meds. When we look at psychedelic medicines, they really have two prongs of how they approach. One is a psychological benefit, and one is a medical benefit,” said Dr. Abid Nazeer, a psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director for Hopemark Health.

He said psilocybin allows people to look at their previous trauma or at themselves in a new light allowing them to potentially reframe their trauma and get to the root cause.

There are bills in both the state House and Senate to legalize psilocybin for medical purposes. Known as the Illinois Compassionate Use and Research of Entheogens (CURE) Act, it would create a state-regulated psilocybin program allowing licensed facilitators to provide supervised therapy.

“Those with mental health issues deserve better. They deserve more than what they’ve been given, and they deserve hope. And we, as providers, researchers, government officials, policy makers, have a responsibility to our part in advancing new and promising treatment options for them,” said Dr. Jessica Punzo, a clinical psychologist.

The drug would remain illegal for recreational use.

Two states, Oregon and Colorado, have legalized psilocybin for supervised use.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies psilocybin as a Schedule I drug, which it defines as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The FDA, however, granted the drug “breakthrough therapy” status.

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