Earlier this week, on Tuesday, lawmakers made the first moves to possibly legalize psychedelic mushrooms. The law they are considering does have limits and restrictions, only having certain parameters set up around the legality of the drug. This would be a historic move for the state, coming 14 years after they legalized marijuana for medical purposes, and only four since it was legalized for recreational use. Over the four years, the state government has gotten a lot looser, letting a law like this one seep through the system and end up on the voting ballot.

The lawmakers behind the bill are sure to not specifically call the bill a legalization.

The State Senator behind Senate Bill 1570, Senator T.J. Shope, called the bill a way “of providing treatment in a clinical setting for those struggling with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues. This matches nearly identically with the verbiage used in the bill to legalize medical marijuana use 14 years ago. That bill specified that the drug would only be legal when in the context of being recommended by a doctor to a patient suffering from a select list of ailments. These ailments included cancer, glaucoma, seizures, chronic severe pain, and eventually mental health disorders such as PTSD. This is the goal of this bill regarding mushrooms, it would only be legal within a few well-defined parameters to maintain control of the drug.

Lawmakers have specially described the bill as “not total legalization,” and “not decriminalization.” They are still heavily restricting the plans, not allowing careless micro-dosing to happen or for children to get ahold of the drug.

Furthermore, the drug would only be allowed to be used when in a state-licensed assisted therapy center.

Not only would the legalization specify who can use the drug legally, it also limits where it can be done. Unlike with the medical marijuana legalization in which people could take the drug home to use there after getting a prescription from their doctor, the use of psilocybin, which is the psychedelic found in mushrooms, would have to be done within a facility. A licensed medical provider, such as a medical doctor, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, and a naturopath would be the only ones able to administer the drug.