Some psychedelic drugs could be decriminalized in Maryland in the near future if lawmakers heed the recommendations of a task force they assigned to consider the impacts of making the drugs more accessible.
The State of Maryland’s Task Force on Responsible Use of Natural Psychedelic Substances, created by the General Assembly in 2024, recommended the legalization of psilocybin, commonly known as mushrooms, DMT and mescaline.
“Maryland now stands at a threshold. The state’s long history of medical innovation, public health leadership, and commitment to religious and civil freedom provide a strong foundation to lead the nation in psychedelic policy reform,” the study states.
The authors, led by Andy Coop, a professor at University of Maryland’s School of Pharmacy, suggest an “ensemble approach” to legalize, deprioritize and build safe, licensed distribution of the drugs.
Instead of going through benchmarks slowly opening up access, the committee said the ensemble approach will responsibly start building a framework to deprioritize legal repercussions, start pathways for medical providers to use the drugs and begin commercial sales all roughly at the same time. That way the state can implement each of the options as it sees fit.
“We are not proposing to bring all the different models in at once, but we are setting the regulatory framework so that those models can be brought in a systematic approach,” Coop said.
That ensemble model will follow three phases that start with building a regulatory and professional framework, which will establish lab licensing and protocols for the cultivation of the drugs, develop medical guidelines, begin expungement of convictions for possession and establish an advisory board.
The next phase would launch a pathway to legalization with medical oversight, allowing the broader use of the drugs by providers and access for people who have prescriptions.
Finally, commercial sales would be opened and the state would look into the possibility of legalizing other drugs like LSD.
“Success depends on establishing clear professional frameworks, comprehensive liability protections, and robust safety protocols before implementation begins, recognizing that professional confidence and regulatory clarity are prerequisites for sustainable program operation across all access pathways within the ensemble model,” the study states.
In recent years psychedelics have been getting a new look from the medical community and the government.
Johns Hopkins University and others have explored psychedelic use for everything from OCD to cluster heads to PTSD.
In July, a federal law went into effect that expedited research on psychedelics.
Maryland decided to consider decriminalization with the task force.
“This is actually an area that's been studied far more than cannabis, whether for behavioral health issues related to post traumatic stress disorder, addiction broader behavioral health, depression issues, addiction, chronic pain, just another tool in the toolbox when you're dealing with a treatments,” said Sen Brian Feldman (D-Montgomery County), a sponsor for the bill that created the task force.
Two states plus D.C. have already decriminalized psychedelics and eight other states have similar task forces.
Maryland lawmakers would still need to pass separate legislation to decriminalize the substances.
