What Is The Penalty for Possessing Shrooms in New Jersey In 2024?

People who possess a small amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms will face lighter punishment, but still possibly jail time, under a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday.

The law makes possession of 1 ounce or less of psilocybin, the psychedelic component of mushrooms, a disorderly persons offense. Penalties for a conviction include up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine. The law is effective immediately.

Previously possession of any amount of psilocybin was a third-degree crime that could warrant 3 to 5 years in prison and an enhanced fine of up to $35,000.

Murphy signed the bill, S3256/A5084, without releasing a public statement.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari, a Union County Democrat who sponsored the bill, said mushrooms are “still an illegal product, but it’s not going to ruin lives for a first offense.”

“The governor recognizes our continued failed war on drugs,” Scutari said. “This was an old relic of the war on drugs; a felony conviction for simple possession of a mushroom.”

The bill grew from the still-unfinished debate about how to create New Jersey’s legal marijuana industry, which 67% of voters demanded on the November ballot.

Lawmakers advanced two bills, one to establish industry regulations and another to decriminalize marijuana as an interim measure while the regulations were being established.

Scutari added a provision lowering penalties for mushrooms, drawing concern from Assembly Democrats who objected because the public debate was never about mushrooms.

Ultimately, mushrooms were put into their bill to allow the marijuana legalization and decriminalization bills to move forward, but those separate bills have also hit a roadblock.

Murphy has asked lawmakers to clarify possession is still illegal for minors, and lawmakers have yet to agree on appropriate penalties for underage possession.

A previous bill drew objections from Black and Latinx lawmakers who feared it would only further disparate interactions with police, but this time involving juveniles.

Black people are arrested at three times the rate of white people for marijuana possession, despite similar usage rates, according to a 2019 report by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

The bills legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana have been on Murphy’s desk awaiting action since mid-December.

In 2018 and 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration twice designated the use of psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” for treating major depressive disorder that had been resistant to other treatments.

Other states have begun changing rules and regulations over psilocybin. Voters in Oregon legalized psilocybin for therapeutic use last year.