ST. PAUL — Veterans dealing with health issues including post traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance use disorder, anxiety and chronic pain could be treated with psychedelic mushrooms if a bill heard in a Minnesota House committee on Wednesday, April 15, becomes law.
The bill would authorize limited use of psilocybin, a hallucinogen that is found in some mushrooms.
Under the legislation proposed by Rep. Max Rymer, R-North Branch, psilocybin could be used therapeutically for individuals 21 years old and older. Enrolled individuals would have to meet eligibility requirements and be approved to take part in the program.
The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management would oversee the program.
Rymer said the psilocybin would be administered in approved medical facilities or an approved private residence. No more than 1,000 patients would be enrolled during the first three years of the program.
Jamie Croyle, director of the Psychedelic Access Project, a volunteer-led program that advocates for the reevaluation of psychedelics in the state, said psilocybin can change people's lives.
“Thousands of Minnesota veterans are living with PTSD and many are not finding relief through existing treatments,” Croyle said.
Rymer said psilocybin used for the program would be different from mushrooms used by people seeking to get high.
“This is controlled. This is professional,” Rymer said. “This program basically establishes a framework for our state to apply this important therapeutic to veterans who might be suffering from these specific ailments.”
Rymer’s bill would change psilocybin in Minnesota law from a Schedule I drug, a substance that has a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, to a Schedule IV drug — a reclassification that notes a lower abuse risk and allows psilocybin to be prescribed for therapeutic use.
Patients, facilitators or suppliers who intentionally give or sell psilocybin to people not registered in the program could be charged with a felony under the bill. Individuals could go to jail for up to two years, be charged with a $3,000 fine or both, according to the bill.
Rymer said he wants an alternative to a repetitive cycle of traditional medicine for veterans.
“The whole goal of this bill is to create an off-ramp to create another potential therapeutic that can be in use,” Rymer said.
Rep. Andy Smith, DFL-Rochester, said the legislation would help people who feel that they have exhausted all other options for treatment.
But Rep. Bjorn Olson-R, Fairmont, said he needs to see more proof before he can support the bill.
“Once we know for sure that this is a good thing, that this is not the next wonder drug that will addict an entire generation of service members, then I'll be on board with it,” Olson said. “But before then, I will always be a no.”
Three years ago, the state set up a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force in the Minnesota Department of Health. In a 2025 report, the task force recommended that the Legislature set up a state-regulated program for the therapeutic administration of psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
Dr. Jessica Nielson, chair of the task force, said she personally knows two veterans who took their lives in the past year.
“Current indications suggest treatment-resistant depression, end-of-life distress, substance use disorders, including alcohol abuse and tobacco, are better treated with psilocybin than the currently available treatments,” Nielson said.
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a larger bill later in the session.
Report for Minnesota is a project of the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication to support local news across the state.
