Albany sponsors narrow New York's psilocybin bill to a medical program

What the old version would have done

As filed in January and February 2025, A2142 and S5303 carried a different name, the "Regulated Health Access and Support Services for Psilocybin Act." That version would have let the Health Department issue psilocybin permits to adults 18 and older who passed a health screening and an education course, licensed commercial suppliers, taxed regulated psilocybin activity, and named 55 qualifying conditions, among them anxiety, chronic pain, insomnia and Lyme disease, plus any novel or emergent condition backed by a published study. It would have taken effect immediately.⁴

What the Medical Psilocybin Act would do

The new text adds Title 5-B to Article 33 of the Public Health Law (sections 3369-aa to 3369-kk) and creates a "medical use of psilocybin program" inside the state Department of Health.³ In plain terms:

• Five named conditions. Major treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, end-of-life care and cluster headaches, plus "other conditions approved by the department."
• A provider decides. A physician, psychologist or nurse practitioner who has taken a state course of two to four hours judges whether a patient qualifies, and the department issues registry ID cards.
• Licensed producers, supervised use. Licensed producers would make and deliver the psilocybin. When a patient's plan calls for supervised use, it can go only to the provider, their staff or a "qualified supervisor," a trained person who "need not be a licensed healthcare provider."
• Limits. No patient could hold more than a 30-day supply, and either the patient or the recommending provider must be a New York resident. Psilocybin is "not intended to be distributed through any pharmacy."
• New crimes for diversion. A new Penal Law Article 174 would make it a class E felony for a provider or supervisor to recommend or give psilocybin knowing there's no medical need, a class B misdemeanor to pass medical psilocybin to someone who isn't registered, and a class A misdemeanor for a patient to hold more than allowed.
• Not for trials. The program wouldn't apply to FDA-approved clinical trials or FDA-approved psilocybin products.
• Start date. July 1, 2028.

Why the sponsors changed it

City & State reported on May 15 that Paulin rewrote the bill "taking into account testimony" from the Assembly's psilocybin hearing and that parts of it are modeled on New Mexico's program.⁵ That hearing, on the "medicinal value of psilocybin," was held September 30, 2025, at 250 Broadway in Manhattan.⁶ "Who's going to transport it? Who do we have to make sure it's protected legally because it's not legal federally? We needed to just work through that process," Paulin told the outlet. The same report said Senate Health Committee chair Gustavo Rivera hadn't read the amended bill and declined to comment.⁵

A May 18 release from the advocacy group New Yorkers for Mental Health Alternatives, posted on Paulin's Assembly page, backed the amended bill with statements from both sponsors, a Columbia assistant professor of psychiatry and members of two veterans' groups.⁷

What it means for New Yorkers today

Nothing changes yet. Psilocybin is listed in Schedule I of New York's Public Health Law,⁸ and possessing it is a crime; our penalties guide has the Penal Law details. If passed, its legal protections would cover people acting within the program, such as registered patients, providers, supervisors and licensed producers.³ See our guide to New York law and legal therapy options in NYC. A separate bill would fund a psilocybin pilot for veterans and first responders.