Amid mental health crisis, local senator forges path for mushroom therapy

EVERETT — When state Sen. Jesse Salomon proposed his first bill on “magic” mushrooms in 2022, he was mostly curious about the response it would get. His phone started blowing up.

“I had more interest, more emails, more contacts, more coverage on this than anything else I’ve done politically,” said Salomon, who represents the 32nd Legislative District stretching from Lynnwood to Shoreline. “At one point, I had to stop making the quote (to the press), ‘I had no idea how much interest there was.’”

Psilocybe mushrooms, also known as psychedelic mushrooms or “shrooms,” contain the hallucinogens psilocybin and psilocin. When ingested, psilocybin can produce powerful visual, auditory and psychological effects.

Research has been limited due to its 53-year history as a Schedule I drug, but has shown psilocybin spurs growth of neural connections within the brain, suggesting a potential treatment for mental health issues. Just a single dose of psilocybin was enough to produce “rapid and therapeutic effects in human clinical trials,” according to a recent study in Nature.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/amid-mental-health-crisis-local-senator-forges-path-for-mushroom-therapy/