New Hampshire Lawmakers Take Up Bipartisan Bills To Legalize Psilocybin For Medical Use

New Hampshire psilocybin medical legalization meets the granite test

New Hampshire psilocybin medical legalization is no longer a whispered what-if; it just got a hearing—and a heartbeat. In a stark committee room where fluorescent lights make everything look like an interrogation, two bipartisan bills stepped into the glare: HB 1809 from Rep. Buzz Scherr and HB 1796 from Rep. Michael Moffett. The pitch wasn’t tie-dye and drum circles—it was treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, terminal care, and a regulated therapeutic pathway under the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. Moffett, a former Marine and self-professed skeptic of psychedelics, told the story of a conversion born not in a dorm room, but at a national veterans conference where the data—and the faces behind it—cut through his zero-tolerance reflex. Scherr, for his part, pointed to the research drumbeat growing louder by the week: evidence for psychedelic-assisted therapy in stubborn depression, developing work in PTSD, and early signals in substance use disorders. This isn’t about tripping; it’s about triage—measured, supervised, and, if lawmakers get it right, accountable.

Both bills would put psilocybin therapy behind clinic doors with guardrails, but they take different routes to the same summit. HB 1809 envisions a tightly curated medical psilocybin program where DHHS approves licensed providers who not only administer psilocybin but cultivate and harvest the natural substance themselves—explicitly barring synthetic versions. Treatment would unfold in three acts: preparation, administration, integration. It would start with patients battling treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and substance use disorder, with room for the advisory board and DHHS to add conditions. HB 1796 builds a more expansive regulatory machine: a Psilocybin Licensing Board issuing licenses to providers, therapy clinics, cultivators, and labs, with facility standards, security, and rescue medications baked into the code. It also creates a Therapeutic Psilocybin Treatment Fund fueled by licensing fees and taxes to explore whether other psychedelics belong in the medical toolkit next. In the bleachers, DHHS raised a red flag about unfunded mandates—warning the department can’t absorb a program of this size without real dollars, not just enthusiasm.

What the bills would do, at a glance

• HB 1809: Natural psilocybin only; DHHS-approved medical providers grow, administer, and report outcomes; qualifying conditions include treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and substance use disorder; a Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board (including a psychedelics researcher and regulators from other programs) oversees data, adds conditions, and certifies program readiness; implementation requires the board’s go-ahead within two years. Read the bill: HB 1809.
• HB 1796: A fuller licensing framework for providers, therapy sites, cultivators, and labs; strict facility and safety protocols; broader qualifying list including end-of-life care; creates a dedicated Treatment Fund; envisioned start date of January 1, 2027. Read the bill: HB 1796.

If HB 1809 is the artisanal model—providers stewarding natural psilocybin from spore to session—HB 1796 is the industrial kitchen: standardized equipment, clear fire exits, and a ledger for every gram. Both would tether psilocybin to a medical setting that looks more like oncology than counterculture: intake, screening, dosing under supervision, and structured integration. The bones are familiar to anyone who’s read the clinical literature—set and setting, careful titration, trained facilitators. But the policy stakes are pure New Hampshire. The advisory board in HB 1809 must sign off that the program can actually function before it launches; HB 1796’s licensing board would build the scaffolding before patients ever cross the threshold. One thing both camps agree on: the status quo isn’t working for people stuck in the cul-de-sac of treatment-resistant illness. And one thing DHHS is right to press: if lawmakers want a medical psilocybin program with outcomes, they’ll need to budget for more than a press release.

Politics, of course, has its own weather. The Senate recently binned a compromise that would have trimmed penalties for first-time psilocybin possession, a reminder that caution still holds real estate under the dome. Meanwhile, the House—ever the laboratory in this state—has pressed forward on broader marijuana policy reform, including adult-use legalization and allowing medical dispensaries to convert to for-profit status. The governor has telegraphed veto ink for legalization measures and shows no signs of softening, even as the federal government moves cannabis down from Schedule I to Schedule III—a symbolic tectonic shift that doesn’t change day-to-day enforcement, but does change the national mood music. Against that backdrop, medical psilocybin could become the Granite State’s narrow bridge: not a cultural revolution, but a clinical carve-out for people who’ve tried everything else and are still waking up to the same nightmare.

If you zoom out, the map gets messy and instructive. States wrestle with borders, ballot language, and industry turf wars—every move on the board reshaping the next. New Jersey is already gaming the interstate future, where supply chains don’t stop at the tollbooth; see New Jersey Marijuana Businesses Could Engage In Interstate Commerce Under Senate President’s New Bill. In Ohio, a single sentence can decide the fate of an election, as flagged in Ohio Attorney General Rejects Cannabis Referendum Petition, Saying It’s ‘Misleading’. North of the line, public sentiment continues its slow thaw, adding pressure to policymakers and neighbors alike—see Canadian Support For Marijuana Legalization Is Increasing, New Poll Shows. And no one should underestimate how entrenched industries shape the rules of the road; a candid moment captured in Joe Rogan Surprised After GOP Senator Says Marijuana And Alcohol Industries Jointly Backed Push To Ban Hemp THC Products shows how alliances form when markets get threatened. Psychedelics won’t be immune. They’ll need clean data, clean governance, and the discipline to stay clinical while the culture wars rage outside the clinic door.

So here we are: two paths up the same mountain, one advisory-board cautious, the other licensing-board comprehensive. Both anchor psilocybin therapy in medical supervision, both aim at the hardest cases, both grapple with the ethics of hope versus hype. The questions left on the table are practical and urgent. Can DHHS get the resources it needs? Will lawmakers honor the science’s pace rather than the news cycle’s? And will New Hampshire—flinty, skeptical, stubborn in the best ways—build a program that treats patients as more than talking points? Watch the hearings, read the bills, and judge for yourself. If you care about evidence-based reform and the people it might help, keep an eye on how these rules get written—and if you’re browsing for compliant products while you follow the policy breadcrumbs, you can always stop by our shop: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.