A bill that would pave the way for psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans in Virginia is effectively dead for the session, with members of a House committee voting unanimously on Monday to set it aside indefinitely.
The 18–0 vote by the House Committee on Rules means no further action will happen this session on the measure, SB 1101, from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D).
In its latest form, the bill would have established a six-member state advisory council to study and make recommendations about treatments involving U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-designated “breakthrough therapies,” including substances such as psilocybin and MDMA.
Virginia’s full Senate approved the proposal unanimously earlier this month, on a 40–0 vote. But once it arrived in the House, the rules panel shelved it without debate or discussion.
As originally introduced, by Hashmi last month, the bill would have also created a fund to help pay for clinical trials into breakthrough therapy treatments for veterans, but a substitute adopted in a Senate committee removed references to that fund, leaving only the portion of the proposal that would create the advisory council.
“That particular substitute really pares the bill down to create within the Department of Health the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Advisory Council,” Hashmi said before the February 3 Senate floor vote.
Hashmi and supporters said the bill would help curb what they described as a crisis in veteran’s mental health in Virginia, which has a comparatively high population of military veterans.
“One thing that we know is that veteran suicide remains a critical crisis point, with rates significantly higher among veterans than the civilian population. Given the fact that we have such a high veteran community here in Virginia, this legislation is especially necessary,” Hashmi said on the Senate floor. “What we have seen is compelling research coming from a variety of research institutions, such as Johns Hopkins, that points to the fact that treatment through psilocybin has been effective in addressing a lot of these issues.”
The measure was an updated version of a similar proposal last year, SB 229, that also cleared the Senate but didn’t make it out of the House.
Separately last week, lawmakers approved a proposal that would legalize retail recreational marijuana sales in the commonwealth, sending the legislation to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). The governor, however, has already indicated he intends veto the bills—as he did with a similar lawmaker-passed proposal last year.
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If the proposal were to become law, it would allow adults 21 and older to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana from regulated, state-licensed retailers.
Use, possession and limited cultivation of cannabis by adults are already legal in Virginia, the result of a Democrat-led proposal approved by lawmakers in 2021. But Republicans, after winning control of the House and governor’s office later that year, subsequently blocked the required reenactment of a regulatory framework for retail sales. Since then, illicit stores have sprung up to meet consumer demand, feeding an illegal market that some estimates value at nearly $3 billion.
Virginia lawmakers also recently advanced proposals that would seal records related to marijuana. An amendment to the record-sealing legislation moved the enactment date of the proposal to July 1, 2026, which staff said was intended to allow Virginia State Police to implement the change.
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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.
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