Minnesota Psychedelic Medicine Task Force Makes Recommendations
Minnesota has quietly become a hotbed of psychedelic advocacy efforts. In the last three years, the state has launched a Psychedelic Task Force and successfully deprioritized arrests related to entheogenic plants and fungi. And this is just the beginning.
The momentum in these last few years is largely in part due to organizations such as the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota, a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 2018 by self-identified psychonaut and academic researcher Jessica Nielson, PhD.
Nielson is no stranger to psychedelics and their robust potential. Her interest in psychedelics began after consuming them as a teenager and quickly meshed with her interest in brain science. As a postdoctoral scholar, Nielson began researching psychedelics at the University of California, San Francisco, where she piloted a project investigating how people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) responded to ayahuasca. In 2017, she was recruited to the University of Minnesota for a tenure-track position in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical School, where she launched the university’s first psilocybin clinical trial in 2021. The study’s primary goals focused on understanding how psilocybin altered mental flexibility and neuroplasticity.
While the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota is sometimes used for research recruitment, this isn’t solely why it was founded. Nielson was eager to find a community of like-minded individuals in her new home. The organization began on the social networking platform MeetUp and has now expanded to become one of the multi-faceted organizations pushing for evidence-based reform in the state.
“I think I founded the community before I actually started the formal clinical trial,” said Nielson. “I was wanting to make friends while also realizing that I wanted to see if there was a viable research population that I could recruit for clinical trials and things like that, while also trying to advocate for changing laws.”
“Ultimately, I want to be able to do psychedelics. I want my friends to be able to do psychedelics. I want to be able to research them scientifically without the government always getting in the way. So it’s kind of this multi-pronged approach of community research, advocacy, policy, and really trying to figure out how we can move the needle through different kinds of lenses. I don’t think any one sector really is going to be able to do it, so we’re really trying to kind of take that multidisciplinary approach.”
A Community of Local Organizations
Other organizations paving the way for the de-stigmatization of psychedelics in Minnesota include Big Psych, a grassroots psychedelic education and activist organization focused on community-building, accessible education, and supporting self-sufficiency in psychedelic exploration. The group’s main priority is to help cultivate a psychedelic culture rooted in equity, reciprocity, and the freedom to choose one’s own path, whether that be spiritual, therapeutic, ancestral, or exploratory. Big Psych was co-founded by couple Jade and Stig Mycelia in 2020 and has been growing and engaging with members of the community ever since.
Big Psych organizes a variety of events for the community, such as Faerie Ring gatherings that center local wisdom, diverse lived experience, and relational care. While they are focused on community-building, the organization has also collaborated with local groups and advocates focused on decriminalization and education efforts, including DecrimMN, Psychedelic Society of Minnesota, Minnesota Rep. Andy Smith, and more.
“We see decriminalization as a vital first step in reducing harm and addressing the criminalization of communities, particularly those most impacted by the War on Drugs,” said Jade Mycelia. “At the same time, we remain cautious of overly medicalized or commercial models that risk reinforcing systemic inequities. We believe true access means honoring diverse cultural traditions, non-clinical healing pathways, and community-led approaches alongside clinical ones. There is no one way to experience psychedelics, and as long as non-clinical use is protected within decriminalization efforts, we support a multi-path approach to healing and exploration.”
Introducing the Psychedelic Task Force
The legislative attitude toward psychedelic policy reform in Minnesota has been generally supportive, with District 25B Rep. Andy Smith (D) leading the way.
In 2023, Smith introduced HF 1884, which established a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force (PMTF) to study and advise on legalizing certain psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA. A companion bill, SF 1954, was introduced by Sen. Kelly Morrison (D). The psychedelic task force was included in the omnibus health bill, passing the Senate with a 34 to 32 vote and the House with a 69 to 64 vote, as of May 23, 2023.
The push for the PMTF came from Kurtis Hanna, a longtime legalization advocate and strategist at the firm Blunt Strategies. Hanna has been working with lawmakers to build support around creating the group for more than a year before its introduction. He was involved in several efforts related to cannabis reform in Minnesota, including the legalization of raw cannabis flower in Minnesota’s medical program.
“In 2023, I was hired by Minnesota NORML as a contract lobbyist to push for cannabis legalization,” said Hanna. “We ended up in a situation where the Democrats won the trifecta, so they had the House, Senate, and governor’s office. It was looking really promising that we would end up getting a cannabis piece of legislation passed into law. So I decided to diversify a little bit and went back to the citizen lobbying route and advocated for the creation of a psychedelic medicine task force that same session.”
As the chief lobbyist on that legislation, Hanna says he was excited to see bipartisan support by both the House and Senate. In the end, the bill was signed into law by Governor Walz, and the legislature allocated $500,000 to get the task force up and running. While not directly on the task force, Hanna continued his involvement by documenting the meetings on YouTube.
The PMTF consists of 23 members: half appointed by the state government and half volunteer. Government members included participants from the Minnesota Department of Health, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the attorney general’s office, the governor’s office, and multiple people from each branch of the legislature. The public members include Nielson as the scientific expert, as well as a psychiatrist, psychologist, addiction medicine specialist, two different veterans, two patients with treatment-resistant mental health conditions, and representatives from local Indigenous tribes. The primary goal of the PMTF is to comb through the existing scientific literature and compare the efficacy of psychedelic medicines to conventional drug treatments.
The group met once a month for 14 months and synthesized their final report in January 2025. This report contains current evidence for psychedelics’ therapeutic potential, considerations surrounding the use of psychedelics, and recommendations for future actions related to medicalization and decriminalization of psychedelics.
There were four major takeaways, or recommendations, democratically chosen by the members of the task force. These included: 1) removing criminal penalties for psychedelic medicines, 2) creating a state-regulated clinical program, 3) funding for more research, and 4) adult-regulated use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
In each recommendation, there are subrecommendations that are more specific. Each recommendation and subrecommendation is voted on and must receive a supermajority of the task force’s vote. For example, in recommendations one and two, other proposed subrecommendations are specific to different psychedelic substances. Only recommendations with psilocybin received the supermajority.
While psilocybin is the focus of decriminalization and state-regulated programs, the third recommendation discusses funding psychedelic research more broadly. Specifically, appropriating “funding for clinical research regarding the health benefits and treatment of medical conditions through the administration of psilocybin, MDMA, and LSD.” This achieved 100% of the vote, demonstrating the vested interest in learning more about these substances.
When asked about her experience on the task force, Nielson responded with hopefulness and practicality.
“We brought in a lot of subject matter experts that I think helped change people’s minds around what the reality of all this is,” she explained. “By the end of it, we all felt pretty close and I feel like I’ve developed good relationships with all of them. So, it was an interesting process and an interesting evolution to see the dynamic shift and figure out what’s possible, where do we still need to do more outreach and education, and where are people still having some rigid mindsets around access and safety.”
Ongoing Decriminalization Efforts
For Minnesotans, 2023 was a big year for psychedelic reform. At the same time the PMTF was introduced, the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota was working on decriminalizing entheogenic plants and fungi in Minneapolis, the state’s largest city.
Efforts began in 2019, but ultimately were pushed down on the priority list by lawmakers when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. During those years, the city of Minneapolis changed its laws about who has ultimate authority to make policy decisions. Previously, if the city council were to approve a resolution, the mayor could veto it, and then the city council could override the veto. Now, the policy has changed and given the mayor the ability to make unilateral executive decisions that the city council cannot overturn.
This change in authority proved to be quite efficient for the society’s efforts. In 2023, the group met with the mayor and presented their case for deprioritizing entheogenic plants and fungi. Jacob Frey, Mayor of Minneapolis, issued an executive order, making Minneapolis the first city in the upper Midwest to deprioritize natural psychedelics.
“Within five minutes [the mayor] was like, ‘You don’t need to convince me. I think this is a non-issue.’ Basically, they got it signed off from the city attorney and the chief of police, as well as the mayor, to deprioritize the enforcement of going after people for entheogens,” said Nielson. “It was also recognizing they weren’t even doing that in the first place, so it really wasn’t like a big lift for them to do it. There wasn’t really any opposition about it.”
Since the Mayor’s executive order, there hasn’t been much movement in other localities. Some rumors of efforts to deprioritize or decriminalize in Duluth have been reported, but no legislation has been introduced or signed. However, in March 2025, legislation was introduced on the state level by Rep. Smith specifically focused on decriminalizing adult psilocybin personal use and possession.
The house bill, HF 2699, would eliminate criminal and civil penalties for personal use and possession of psilocybin by adults 21 years and older. The bill allows for personal cultivation (no commercialization), transportation, possession, and non-remunerative exchange. The bill also states that no landlord may refuse to leave or evict someone for cultivating or possessing psilocybin, nor can anyone be denied custody, visitation, or parenting time for possession/cultivation. The bill would also establish a Psychedelic Medicine Board that would be used to determine specific limits on possession and recommend other regulations or requirements.
Another aspect of HF 2699 is the development of an educational program through the Commissioner of Health. The program would focus on the responsible use of psilocybin – including harm reduction and potential risks – and develop training programs for first responders to help them handle situations involving psilocybin ingestion. The bill also establishes grants for community outreach programs. This bill was referred to the Health Finance and Policy Committee.
Building Community and Gaining Support
The psychedelic community in Minnesota continues to grow. Groups like the Society for Psychedelics and Big Psych have been able to collaborate and form connections with state and national organizations, including DecrimMN, Oakland Hyphae, POC Psychedelic Collective, Waking Nomad, Expanse, Catalyst Insight Collective, and many other community-rooted networks.
This year, Big Psych will be hosting the 5th annual Psychedelic Symposium on August 15 and 16 at The Hook and Ladder in Minneapolis, MN. The theme, “Earth as the First Medicine: Global Wisdom, Local Practices,” will allow attendees to explore the many ways communities across the globe have worked in relationship with the natural world to promote healing, transformation, and connection. The event includes a fungi cooking class, community meal, various workshops related to natural plants, speakers, and a story sharing stage where anyone can talk about their experiences. Tickets can be purchased on their website on a sliding scale.
Psychedelic reform in Minnesota started with community building. This sense of collective purpose continues to be foundational to bridging the gap between policy and people.
“Without community input, policy change can easily become disconnected from the real needs and values of the people it aims to serve,” Jade Mycelia explained. “We’ve seen that the most meaningful shifts happen through relationships, whether that’s connecting someone to their legislator or helping them find an integration circle that feels safe and supportive. Big Psych works to create infrastructure grounded in care, education, and mutual support. We also prioritize uplifting community voices and cultivating local leadership. Psychedelic work doesn’t end with the trip – it continues in how we integrate those experiences within and amongst the community.”