Washington State senators are renewing the push to legalize psilocybin services, prefiling a bill ahead of the forthcoming legislative session that would create a regulated psychedelics system aimed at promoting mental health and wellness.
The measure, SB 5201, led by Sen. Jesse Salomon (D) along with eight cosponsors, is a revised version of legislation he filed in 2023 that would have legalized psilocybin and psilocin—the two main psychoactive chemicals in psychedelic mushrooms—in a fashion similar to existing laws in Oregon and Colorado. It would allow adults 21 and older to legally use the substances with the support of a trained facilitator, with product manufacturers, service centers and testing labs licensed by the state.
Lawmakers passed Salomon’s 2023 bill, but only after gutting its legalization provisions. As enacted, the bill instead created a limited pilot program and expressed intent to further study the issue. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed the measure into law but also issued a partial veto, nixing provisions that would have created a Psilocybin Advisory Board and an Interagency Psilocybin Work Group.
Salomon’s new measure revives the legalization proposal with a few adjustments, he said in a brief interview with Marijuana Moment. Since 2023 the lawmaker and allies have worked with outside experts—including authors of the Oregon and Colorado laws—and toured psilocybin service centers in Oregon to better understand what’s working and what isn’t.
“Based on all that, we wrote something that we think and hope will assure safety, create access and create a viable business model,” he said.
The new 71-page bill conceives of a two-track system for psychedelics: what Salomon described as a “clinical track,” focused on psychedelics to help treat conditions such as PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders and “other serious maladies,” as well as a separate “wellness track.” The latter would be open to any adult who felt they might benefit, not just those with clinical conditions.
“It’s not my intention to create a solely diagnosis-based treatment,” the lawmaker said. “We have a wellness track, and I would really like to keep it.”
At the same time, “I wouldn’t call it recreational,” he continued, noting that products wouldn’t be available at retail stores for people to use on their own. “That’s not what this is.”
In other words, the bill aims to create a program that doesn’t see psychedelics necessarily as an way to correct a malady. Salomon, during an interview while he was at the gym, likened it to exercise.
“In real life, it’s a continuum, right? We’re all struggling for the best mental health,” he said. “I’m in the gym, working on my physical health.”
Before receiving psilocybin services, the sponsor explained, a person would undergo a mental health screening. Clients with a low to moderate risk profile would be put on the wellness track—a term that doesn’t appear in the bill itself—with services overseen by a “facilitator” rather than a “clinical facilitator.”
Both positions would be licensed by the state and need to supervise the preparation, administration and integration of the psychedelic session. Clinical facilitators would need to be further licensure or accreditation within a related scope of practice.
“If you have complex PTSD, we create this clinical model, like you’re doing in Oregon, in Colorado, where we have a licensed medical professional overseeing it,” Salomon said. “That’s the main difference.”
The clinical track is expected to be both more tightly regulated but also more expensive. One criticism of Oregon’s psilocybin system has been the cost of participation, which limits accessibility. Sessions can cost up to about $1,000, and aren’t covered by insurance.
The wellness track is aimed at making psychedelic-assisted therapy more affordable while recognizing the relatively low risk profile of substances like psilocybin and psilocin.
“Experience with legalization in Oregon and Colorado has shown that the highest barrier to participation in the psychedelic substance system is high cost, engendered in part by the unavailability of insurance coverage and the high cost of regulatory operations and regulatory compliance in this new industry,” the bill says. “It is not possible to effectively address equity, access, and inclusion without addressing the cost of services.”
Regulatory duties for the new system would be divided between the state Department of Health—which would license and oversee facilitators, clinical facilitators and service centers—and the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), which would be responsible for regulating manufacturers and testing labs.
The bill would direct departments “to consider the cost and complexity of regulatory compliance when adopting regulations under this act, and to enact rules that maximize flexibility and lower costs for licensees and streamline the experience for clients as much as possible, considering the comparatively small street value and lack of toxicity of psychedelic substances, and maintain due regard for client safety.”
The introductory text of SB 5201 says psychedelics have “a low-risk profile when administered in a context of supported adult use, in a controlled environment, and under the context of a trained facilitator.” It notes encouraging results from clinical trials on PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder “and other serious maladies,” and also acknowledges that many people “report having profound experiences after taking psychedelic substances creating lasting impressions and inspiring positive change in their lives.”
Until 2030, the bill would affect only psilocybin or psilocin, “either naturally occurring or producing using chemical synthesis.” After that, regulators could decide by rule to expand the program to include DMT, ibogaine and non-peyote-derived mescaline, among others. (In addition to SB 5201, Salomon also has also prefiled an ibogaine-assisted therapy bill, SB 5204, for the coming session.)
“It’s not toxic,” he said of the proposal’s political chances. As opposed to a less comprehensive bill he introduced last year that didn’t get a hearing by colleagues, he said the new bill has “a high-powered team” working on it, including a few lobbyists and “outside benefactors” as well as lawyers involved in the Oregon and Colorado laws.
Last year’s measure, notably, would have allowed limited psilocybin therapy under supervision of facilitators licensed by other states—what Salomon acknowledged was “my snarky response to the agencies being really nervous” about regulating psychedelics.
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Outside the legislature, organizers in Washington are separately working to put a measure on the state’s ballot that would legalize a number of plant- and fungi-based psychedelics for personal use, including psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline and DMT.
While the proposal wouldn’t allow commercial sales of the substances, it would permit paid “supportive services” under which people could receive compensation for facilitating psychedelic experiences. Individual adults could also freely grow psychedelic plants and fungi and share them with other adults without remuneration.
The initiative campaign, the Responsible Entheogen Access and Community Healing Coalition (REACH WA), submitted the measure to the secretary of state last year, and the office granted it a formal ballot title and summary in June.
Local leaders in the state’s capital city of Olympia, meanwhile, voted unanimously last August to pass a resolution locally decriminalizing psilocybin and certain other psychedelic plants and fungi. It became the latest locality in the state to pass such a measure following similar changes in Seattle, Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
Olympia was one of at least six municipalities across the state where activists set out in late 2023 to pass psychedelics reform at the local level. Organizers told Marijuana Moment at the time that the grassroots strategy was inspired in part by municipal psychedelics reform in cities across Massachusetts.
Salomon said the local organizing efforts helped pave the way for what he hopes will be a successful effort in the Capitol this year.
“It’s really helpful for them, as they concentrate on that, to sort of lay the groundwork,” he said. “Then legislators from those areas will be like, ‘Oh, OK, well, Salomon’s been bugging me about this for three freaking years!’”
“I’m feeling optimistic,” the lawmaker concluded. “It’s very complicated. It’s a hard bill. But we’ve been really focused on doing the things internally that should help.”
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