Minnesota's Psychedelic Medicine Task Force, created by the state Legislature in 2023, has spent recent months evaluating whether to expand therapeutic access to psychedelic drugs amid a persistent mental health crisis, writes task force chair Jessica Nielson in an op-ed for Minnesota Reformer.
Psilocybin-assisted treatments for depression, addiction and trauma are advancing toward federal approval, and Oregon and Colorado already run legal therapeutic access programs, Nielson notes.
Psychedelics became Schedule I substances in 1970 under the Nixon administration's Controlled Substances Act, halting psychiatric research from the 1950s into treating mental illness and alcohol dependence. The same substances were embraced by the counterculture movement opposing the Vietnam War and supporting civil rights. The 1970 law launched the War on Drugs, stalling research for decades and criminalizing users, according to Nielson.
Renewed scientific interest centers on psychedelics' ability to boost neuroplasticity — the brain's capacity to change — which researchers believe could help treat hard-to-treat neurological and mental health conditions.
In 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order accelerating access to psychedelic medicines for patients with mental health conditions, directing federal agencies to build a framework for state-federal coordination, the op-ed states.
That momentum carried into Minnesota's legislative session, where several psychedelics bills advanced but lawmakers stopped short of creating a full therapeutic access program for psilocybin mushrooms. Legislators directed the Office of Cannabis Management to complete a feasibility study and deliver a legislative report by January 15, 2027, outlining a framework for a state-regulated psilocybin program for screened patients with qualifying conditions.
The office won't start from scratch: the task force already produced a 200-page guidebook covering legal, regulatory, scientific, cultural and ethical considerations, the product of 14 months of work by 23 members, which Nielson says can serve as a national resource for other states.
"The question of whether to create a psilocybin therapeutic access program is not about if, but how it will be implemented," Nielson writes, pointing to bipartisan support at the local, state and federal levels.
She calls this year's session a planning phase and urges lawmakers to pass a complete access program in 2027 to help residents manage conditions resistant to standard treatment.
Nielson is an adjunct assistant professor in the University of Minnesota's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and founder and president of the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota.
This piece was first published by Minnesota Reformer.
Photo courtesy of Mark Groeneveld.