South Dakota Governor Signs Bills To Legalize Synthetic Psilocybin Following Federal Approval

Supporters say the psychedelic can help veterans with PTSD and those with treatment-resistant depression.

By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight

A synthetic version of psychedelic mushrooms will be legal for use in mental health therapy in South Dakota if it’s approved by the federal government.

Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill into law last week that sets the state up to instantly legalize crystalline polymorph psilocybin if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves its use and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reschedules it from a drug of abuse to a drug with medical value.

House Bill 1099 sailed through the House of Representatives 58-7 on the strength of testimony about the drug’s promise in clinical trials as a more effective option for post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression.

Lobbyists for combat veterans testified in support of the measure.

The bill met a bit more resistance in the Senate, where Rapid City Republican Sen. Greg Blanc pulled it from the chamber’s consent calendar—a list of noncontroversial bills passed with a single vote unless a senator asks to remove one—to decry the idea of using a psychedelic drug in therapy.

Blanc pleaded with his fellow senators to resist the bill’s conditional legalization, but supporters returned repeatedly to the theme of hope for veterans and treatment-resistant depression and stressed that nothing would happen until the federal government green-lit the drug as safe and effective.

The bill passed the Senate 21-12.

This story was first published by South Dakota Searchlight.