Pennsylvania Psilocybin Research Bill In Limbo After Key Committee Chair Raises

A Pennsylvania bill meant to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms for certain mental health conditions may be in jeopardy, with the sponsor saying that the chair of a key House committee is expressing reservations even after the legislation was amended in an effort to build support.

The legislation from Rep. Tracy Pennycuick (R)—titled the “Psilocybin Data Act”—was originally introduced last year, but it did not advance. A revised version filed this month notably removes a key provision allowing state Department of Health to authorize two entities to cultivate the psychedelic for research purposes.

But the sponsor tells Marijuana Moment that the “watered down version” is still facing a major obstacle in the committee where it’s been referred.

Pennycuick said that supporters are “struggling” with the chair of the House Health Committee, Rep. Kathy Rapp (R).

“I am not sure she will even run this,” the sponsor said. “To say I am frustrated is mild compared to how I really feel. I have worked this bill for months.”

Pennycuick said that she’s been working to build support for the legislation for months, but then the chairwoman “shifted course due to an overdose death in her district” allegedly involving so-called “magic mushrooms.”

Two points on that: First, the bill would not legalize psilocybin. Second, the psychedelic has a very low toxicity rate. The Drug Policy Alliance explains that “sensationalized media coverage of psychedelic-related deaths [have] misattributed the role of psychedelics like psilocybin in causing suicide or accidental death.”

Rapp’s office did not respond multiple requests for comment and clarification from Marijuana Moment.

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“I don’t understand it,” Pennycuick, an Army veteran herself who lives with PTSD, said. “It is frustrating.”

The lawmaker suffered a traumatic experience as an Army helicopter pilot, left stuck in a vehicle that caught fire following an explosion. She told Philadelphia Magazine that the psychological damage of that event “didn’t hit me until five or six years later,” and she hopes to be “patient number one” for psilocybin clinical trials as a therapeutic tool for her own condition.

Her newly revised bill, HB 2421, starts with a declaration of purpose stating that the Commonwealth is “in desperate need of innovative and cost-effective mental health treatment to combat this significant public health crisis,” citing statistics about increased rates of mental health complications.

“A growing body of research suggests…