Florida’s Senate on Wednesday passed a wide-ranging agricultural bill that contains provisions to outlaw fungal spores that produce mushrooms containing psilocybin or psilocin. The vote came a day after a House committee advanced a companion bill in that chamber.
Senators voted 27–9 to approve SB 700, from Sen. Keith Truenow (R). HB 651 is moving through the House, meanwhile, having advanced out of the Commerce Committee on Tuesday.
The proposed ban on spores of mushrooms that create psilocybin or psilocin is a small part of the roughly 150-page legislation, which would make a variety of adjustments to Florida’s agricultural laws, including around agricultural lands, utilities and wildlife management.
With respect to psychedelic mushrooms, both measures would outlaw transporting, importing, selling or giving away “spores or mycelium capable of producing mushrooms or other material which will contain a controlled substance, including psilocybin or psilocyn, during its lifecycle.”
Violating the proposed law would be a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying a maximum one year in jail and $1,000 fine.
While lawmakers on the Senate floor and House committee spent considerable time debating various other portions of the bills—especially a proposed ban on fluoride in local water supplies—there was no mention of the provision concerning psychedelic mushroom spores.
“This bill at its core is meant to help farmers and consumers and students who want to become farmers one day,” Truenow said ahead of the floor vote.
Psilocybin and psilocin are the two main psychoactive compounds in psychedelic mushrooms. Although spores themselves typically do not contain psilocybin or psilocin, they eventually produce fruiting bodies—mushrooms—that do contain the psychedelic compounds.
Because the spores don’t contain any controlled substances, the federal government deems them legal.
“If the mushroom spores (or any other material) do not contain psilocybin or psilocin (or any other controlled substance or listed chemical), the material is considered not controlled,” Terrence Boos, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section chief, said in a memo last year. (Using a similar rationale, Boos has said that marijuana seeds are considered federally legal hemp because they themselves don’t contain THC.)
In Florida, a legislative report for HB 651 similarly notes that “spores do not contain any psilocybin properties themselves and therefore could be considered legal under current law.”
To prevent that, the proposal would clarify as illegal any spores or mycelium that could produce psilocybin or psilocin at any time in their development.
A legislative report for the Senate version of the bill notes that psychedelic mushrooms “became popular in the United States during the 1960s when American researchers first studied their healing properties and medical applications. Now, they are listed as a Schedule I controlled substance by the U.S. government, meaning they have no accepted medical use.”
It further says that “any material, compound, mixture, or preparation that contains the hallucinogenic substance known as Psilocybin has high potential for abuse and is not currently accepted as medical treatment in the United States.”
As for psilocybin and psilocin themselves, the substances are already illegal in Florida. Simple possession is a third-degree felony, carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
On Tuesday of this week, a separate House committee voted unanimously to advance a recently amended bill that would allow military veterans to skip the state registration fee for medical marijuana cards and obtain the certifications for free.
That measure, HB 555, was filed in February by Rep. Alex Andrade (R) and originally would have made more significant changes to the state’s existing medical cannabis program, for example allowing home cultivation as well as reciprocity for out-of-state patients. But the House Health Professions and Programs Subcommittee advanced a two-page substitute bill that instead would make only small changes to the program.
First, the measure would change how often patients need to renew their medical marijuana cards, from the current annual process to once every two years.
Second, it would also waive the $75 registration and renewal fees for veterans, specifying that the state “may not charge a fee for the issuance, replacement, or renewal of an identification card for a qualified patient who is a veteran.”
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The Senate last week also passed a bill that would restrict hemp-derived THC products, including popular THC-infused beverages.
Among other changes, that proposal would forbid any amount of synthetic cannabinoids, including delta-8 THC. The amount of delta-9 THC in hemp-derived products, meanwhile, couldn’t be more than five milligrams per serving or 50 milligrams per container.
The amount of THC in hemp-infused drinks to just five milligrams per container, and the beverages could be sold only by retailers with liquor licenses—a provision backed by lobbyists representing the beer and wine industries.
Meanwhile, a state judge last month dismissed a lawsuit from the cannabis company Trulieve against the state Republican Party over last year’s failed constitutional amendment that sought to legalize adult-use marijuana.
The company had argued that the GOP’s opposition campaign was “intentionally deceptive,” with “demonstrably false” claims that were “trying to fool Florida voters” into opposing the reform, but a the judge disagreed.
The campaign behind the failed legalization effort, Smart and Safe Florida is already gearing up for another ballot fight next year, having so far submitted just over 7,500 valid signatures of the 891,523 needed to make the 2026 ballot, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
The campaign’s 2026 iteration includes several changes that seem responsive to issues raised by critics about the 2024 version.
State officials recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign, however, alleging the group “committed multiple election law violations.”
A recent survey from the University of North Florida found that, despite last year’s ballot proposal failing, there’s overwhelming, bipartisan voter support for the reform. It showed that 67 percent of Florida voters now back legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.
The results conflict with another recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, that found majority support for the reform among likely voter (53 percent) but not enough to be enacted under the 60 percent requirement.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in January that the latest version of the legalization initiative is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.
Using Psychedelics Is Tied To 25% Lower Likelihood Of ‘Frequent Bad Headaches,’ Study Shows
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.
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