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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)—A New York State legislative hearing was held this week in New York City about the medicinal value of psilocybin— a compound in psychedelic mushrooms.
“When I first heard about it, I thought of LSD— a hallucinogen, and it’s nothing like that,” explained Democratic Assemblymember, Amy Paulin. “Not that I’ve tried LSD, but my understanding of LSD is that you see pink elephants, right? Here, it’s more like having a glass of wine.”
Psilocybin is currently a schedule one narcotic. However, those who testified at the hearing say studies have shown it can help certain health conditions.
“It has been used in many, many clinical trials and research for the last 50 years, and actively being used, unfortunately, at the black market to deal with mental health issues, weight loss, tobacco , alcohol— addressing alcohol abuse, and cluster headaches,” said Paulin.
States such as Oregon and Colorado have already legalized it. New York may follow suit.
“If it is something that the state pursues as a policy to legalize it, I believe it needs to be very tightly controlled,” said Republican Assemblymember, Josh Jensen.
According to Jensen, New York has three pieces of legislation.
“One would fully legalize it, which I don’t support, and then two that would create special classifications,” said Jensen. “I think that we need to continue gather subject matter expertise both from people pursuing greater use and people who do have concerns.”
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Jamie DeLine
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