New Hampshire House Passes Scaled-Back Psilocybin Bill, While Rejecting Measure To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients’ Gun Rights

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has approved an amended bill to establish a psilocybin advisory board to study pathways to allow patients to access the novel therapy—though lawmakers separately rejected an effort to revive separate legislation aimed at protecting gun rights for medical marijuana patients.

Members took up the psilocybin and cannabis measures on Thursday, significantly scaling back the bipartisan psychedelics bill from Rep. Buzz Scherr (D) that would have in its initial form given certain patients legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy. The amended version to create an advisory group to explore the issue passed the full chamber and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

The medical marijuana and firearms legislation from Rep. Tom Mannion (R), meanwhile, was briefly considered on the floor, but a motion to take the bill off the table failed in a 81-270 vote. That proposal would make it so a person’s status as a registered medical cannabis patient in the state would not infringe on their right to purchase or possess guns under state law.

The revised psilocybin bill represents a setback for advocates, as the House passed the initial version last month that would have created a regulatory pathway for patients with certain conditions to access the psychedelic for therapeutic use through a program overseen by the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS).

Under House rules, the measure had to go back to the Finance Committee and then pass again in the full chamber in order to advance to the Senate. The committee deemed the bill inexpedient to legislate, and when it got the floor for the second time on Thursday, members overturned that recommendation and then adopted the major change that only contemplates a potential regulated access model instead, with an advisory board tasked with studying the issue. That dialed-back version ultimately passed.

“The medical community has always recognized that patients exist with serious conditions that are very resistant to effective treatment,” a statement of purpose says. “Recently, research has begun to show that certain of those patients have had positive results with the closely supervised use of psilocybin for treatment.”

“The purpose of this act is to study the feasibility of the creation of a carefully monitored and closely supervised setting in which an approved medical provider can treat a carefully chosen patient with appropriate doses of psilocybin which that same provider has produced for a medical intervention,” the bill, HB 1809, says.

On marijuana reform, the legislation from Mannion and bipartisan cosponsors, HB 1446, would preserve gun rights for medical cannabis patients in the state, reaffirming their right under the state constitution even if they continue to face a federal ban on possession or buying firearms persists. The U.S. Supreme Court is actively reviewing a case that could lift that prohibition after hearing oral arguments last month.

“This bill ensures that our therapeutic cannabis patients are no longer treated as second-class citizens or differently from other patients being treated with different medications,” Rep. Billie Butler (D) said before the vote on the motion.

Also this month, New Hampshire lawmakers effectively killed bills to legalize marijuana and allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin by not bringing them up for floor votes ahead of a key deadline.

One bill from Rep. Jonah Wheeler (D) would have put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot to let voters decide if they want to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older, allowing them to “possess a modest amount of cannabis for their personal use.”

Members of the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee took up that legislation in January. It was ultimately deemed inexpedient to legislate by a majority of the panel, but in New Hampshire all bills still have the opportunity to advance to the floor even with negative committee recommendations.

Another cannabis legalization bill that didn’t get a floor vote in the House by deadline was HB 1235-FN from Rep. Jared Sullivan (D) and five bipartisan cosponsors. The measure was also designated as inexpedient to legislate by the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.

Sullivan also filed separate legislation this session that would have legalized adult-use cannabis through a regulated sales model, with additional provisions to provide relief for those who’ve previously been criminalized over marijuana. That bill already passed the House this year, but it was then promptly killed in the Senate.

The House this month further declined to take up a Republican-led bill from Rep. Michael Moffett (R) that would have permitted the regulated use of psilocybin in a medically supervised setting.

To qualify for psilocybin treatment, a patient 21 or older would have needed to be diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance misuse disorder, a terminal illness requiring end-of-life care or any other condition authorized by DHHS.

—Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Meanwhile, Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) has already threatened to veto any marijuana legalization bill that reaches her desk, though the constitutional amendment proposal would not require gubernatorial action.

The governor said in August that her position on the reform would not change even if the federal government moved forward with rescheduling the plant. Since then, President Donald Trump has directed the attorney general to finalize the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

At a committee meeting last year, Sullivan ultimately made a persuasive argument for advancing his legalization bill, pointing out that the House has repeatedly passed similar legislation and that the chamber should stand its ground, forcing the Senate and governor to again go on record with their opposition to a policy popular among voters.

“We know where it’s going to go. Let’s send a virtue signal,” Sullivan said. “Let them be the ones that are pissing off voters who care about this.”

In the Senate, the Judiciary Committee in January also took up a bill from Sen. Donovan Fenton (D) that would allow adults over the age of 21 to legally possess up to four ounces of cannabis in plant form and 20 grams of concentrated cannabis products, as well as other products containing no more than 2,000 milligrams of THC.

Last June, the New Hampshire Senate voted to scrap compromise legislation that would have lowered the state’s criminal penalty for first-time psilocybin possession while also creating mandatory minimum sentences around fentanyl.

As originally introduced, the legislation would have completely removed penalties around obtaining, purchasing, transporting, possessing or using psilocybin, effectively legalizing it on a noncommercial basis. However a House committee amended the bill before unanimously advancing it last March.

Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.

AOC Slams Federal Drug Laws That Restrict Marijuana And Psychedelics Despite Their Medical Value

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into the current U.S. drug scheduling system on Thursday—making the case that placing substances like marijuana and LSD in the most restrictive category runs counter to evidence showing their medical potential, hinders research and is associated with criminal penalties that haven’t effectively prevented harms from substance misuse.

In some cases, the congresswoman said during a hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, classifying drugs as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) can exacerbate the overdose crisis, leading to the introduction of new, sometimes more dangerous drugs into the illicit marketplace.

The panel on Thursday took testimony on a variety of bills aimed at curbing overdose deaths and responding to emerging public health threats posed by illegal drugs such as xylazine and other opioid-like synthetics that are often more potent than the analogues that came before them.

Ocasio-Cortez said it was time to “take a step back” and “really explore and examine the scheduling system in the United States as a whole and really how we think about this,” directing her questions to Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina who served as an expert witness for the hearing.

Our current drug scheduling system in the U.S. does little to deter drug abuse or overdose rates, but instead hinders research and unfairly criminalizes communities.

We need to invest in actual solutions like prevention, treatment, and recovery. pic.twitter.com/CNkfaN795W

— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) March 26, 2026

“We’re often trying to slot in certain substances into our scheduling [and] end up playing a lot of whack-a-mole,” the congresswoman said. “Once you schedule one substance, people then start finding alternatives—and before you know it, people are then starting to overdose on entirely new substances that we didn’t even know existed a couple of years ago.”

“In theory, Schedule I drugs are supposed to have no potential for medical use and high risk for abuse and addiction, correct?” she asked Dasgupta, who affirmed that was the case.

“There are also specific penalties tied to each schedule. Once a drug gets scheduled, the penalties for possessing that drug can change overnight,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And so when we look back at the point of scheduling, in about 1970 or so, Congress created this system to try to deter the use of dangerous drugs by applying criminal penalties to the possession of those drugs and scheduling was also intended to ensure safety when these drugs are used in clinical or research settings.”

“Now, since this system was established more than 50 years ago, we’ve seen how it’s fallen short. We’ve endured the war on drugs, and we’ve also had a lot of limitations in medical research,” she said before asking the expert to provide examples of drugs currently classified as Schedule I under the CSA.

Dasgupta pointed to marijuana, LSD and MDMA, and Ocasio-Cortez followed up by asking for his opinion on whether those three substances meet the definition of having “zero potential medical application.”

“I think the medical literature is clear that they do have clinical benefits,” Dasgupta said.

The congresswoman had him repeat that point, clarifying that its his assessment that “right now our law says that these drugs have zero medical application, but the science says something else.”

“That’s right,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez added that “the wealth of medical research shows that these are potential treatments for treatment-resistant PTSD, traumatic brain injuries—but the schedule classification really prevents researchers from continuing to do work on this, correct?”

The scientist again answered in the affirmative.

Opponents might counter that narrative by arguing that “people are overdosing on some of these substances, so we still need to schedule them,” the congresswoman said. “But has adding criminal penalties successfully reduced overdose deaths?”

Dasgupta answered by pointing to an examples out of Florida, where the state placed xylazine in Schedule I of their own controlled drugs list but then saw overdose deaths from xylazine increase from about 3,700 per year to 6,400 per year. That goes to show that simply scheduling a drug is “not a panacea,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez went on to say that “increasing the scheduling is becoming medically prohibitive for treatments, but then also adding the criminal penalties has not only not reduced overdose, but in the state of Florida, it’s doubled them.”

“But I think we’re all still here on the same purpose, right? We want to make sure that we’re protecting people and doing what we can,” she said, asking the witness whether he’s aware of “any methods…that can help us make progress on this.”

Dasgupta said, “I mean, I think scheduling does have an important role. I think there just needs to be a lot more flexibility to keep the science in line with the regulatory process. That’s the bottom line.”

Of the three Schedule I drugs that the scientist cited at the hearing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already signaled that they each hold medical potential, with one LSD-like substance, MM120, and the main compound of ecstasy, MDMA, receiving breakthrough therapy status to promote research that could lead to drug development.

For marijuana, its time in Schedule I may be coming to an end. After a years-long scientific review led by FDA, former Attorney General Merrick Garland ultimately signed a proposed rule to move cannabis to Schedule III of the CSA. That process wasn’t completed by the end of the Biden administration that initiated it, but President Donald Trump in December signed an executive order directing the current attorney general, Pam Bondi, to expeditiously finalize that rule.

As Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) noted in a letter sent to Bondi on Friday, however, marijuana remains in Schedule I even three months after the president issued that directive. The congressman is therefore seeking an update from DOJ on the status of its rulemaking.

Kansas Officials Are Being Sued Over Raids Against Hemp Businesses

“The lawsuit is a tactic to distract from the fact that Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD made a business decision to ignore state law.”

By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector

Three smoke and vape shops are suing the state of Kansas, accusing officials of Fourth Amendment violations in a series of October raids.

The plaintiffs have filed suit against KBI director Tony Mattivi, Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), KBI agents, local law enforcement and county attorneys. They allege illegal search and seizure and defective warrants.

The KBI and local law enforcement executed raids late last year on smoke and vape shops in Concordia, Independence, Abilene, McPherson, Pratt, Salina, Topeka and Wichita.

The raids were planned in an effort to end lax enforcement of laws against marijuana and THC in Kansas, according to Kobach at a press conference held during the raids.

The lawsuit claims officers seized hemp-derived products without distinctions in the warrants between legal and illegal hemp products under Kansas law.

The smoke and vape shops say the warrants were defective for not acknowledging that types of hemp-derived products are legal within Kansas, with the warrant for Indy Vapes in Independence stating all derivatives of THC are contraband.

The Kansas Controlled Substance Act says industrial hemp and hemp-derived products are legal and are not controlled substances if they have less than a 0.3 percent concentration of THC. The plaintiffs say they sell legal hemp products and purchase those products from established wholesalers.

Kobach’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The shops said they lost thousands of dollars in inventory and that the seized inventory was likely destroyed. Mattivi said at a press conference held during the raids that seized products were sent to labs by the KBI for private testing.

According to the lawsuit, officers told employees not to film them, covered windows from the inside and unplugged the store’s internet and in-store security cameras.

“The lawsuit is a tactic to distract from the fact that Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD made a business decision to ignore state law, and now want to blame law enforcement for what they knew was a likely consequence,” according to a statement from the KBI. “We will defend our responsibility to enforce the laws of Kansas.”

The KBI said warrants executed by agents gave them the authority to seize illegal products and contraband. The statement did not address agents interfering with recording.

This story was first published by Kansas Reflector.

Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel and Philip Steffan.