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.
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