We all know that California is one of the cooler states of the U.S, with being the pioneers in legalising medicinal cannabis use back in 1996.
As of this week, the Californian Senate has passed the bill to legalise the possession of psychedelics such as LSD and Psilocybin, sponsored by Senator Scott Wiener.
Previously cleared by three committees, the bill passed with 21-16.
This means that if enacted into law, the bill would obliterate criminal penalties for possessing/sharing numerous psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, LSD and MDMA, for adults 21 and older.
Turning 21 has been taken to a whole new level.
‘Magic mushrooms’ are 100 times less potent than LSD.
They have been extensively discussed as being a helpful treatment for disorders such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, quitting smoking, alcohol addiction, cocaine addiction and cluster headaches… the list goes on and on.
This is yet to be approved by the FDA, and trials of shrooms continue. Whereas substances like MDMA have been stated as potential treatments for PTSD.
The night of Oregon’s election in November 2020 also saw the legalisation of psilocybin for mental health treatment under supervised settings and decriminalise possession of all drugs.
Cities in Massachusetts, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor and Washington D.C. are amongst other U.S locations to have followed in Oregon’s footsteps with decriminalised possession of plant and fungi psychedelics.
In addition to California jumping on the legalise-it-bandwagon, Texas lawmakers recently sent a bill to their governor requiring the state of Texas to study the medical benefits of psychedelics for military veterans.
If even lawmakers in Texas can take this approach, then at least we know there is some good change in the world. In relation to California’s passed bill, Senator Weiner said:
“This approach moves us away from the failed war on drugs, which was based on the badly flawed premise that criminalizing, arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning people for using drugs will somehow deter their use and will somehow improve public safety.
If there’s anything we’ve learned from the past half-century it’s that throwing people in jail for using drugs doesn’t stop drug use.” We love an advocate!
🚨🚨BREAKING: The CA Senate just passed our legislation to decriminalize psychedelics! 🎉
To everyone who made calls, shared, posted, told their stores: You did this! Let’s keep up the fight & momentum. We need to end the failed War on Drugs.
Thank you, colleagues! #SB519 pic.twitter.com/n1KwNFNIGI
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) June 1, 2021
The bill is being described by lawmakers and advocates alike as ‘decriminalisation’, to put it simply.
However, the ‘official’ legislative analysis of the proposal states that these substances’ personal possession and social sharing would be made ‘lawful’.
From this, the activist group Decriminalise California announced earlier this year their plan to put an initiative to legalise the use and retail sale of magic mushrooms’ ingredient psilocybin on the state’s ballot of 2022.
They said it would first work to convince lawmakers to pursue reform and to band with the people if the legislature should fail to deliver.
Back in November 2020, Senator Wiener previewed the psychedelics effort in the California legislature, which demonstrated activists pushing to enact the reform of psychedelics locally in the state’s cities and nationwide.
Moving forward with this and under the bill, the state’s Department of Public Health would be required to establish a working group by January 1, 2024: “to study and make recommendations regarding possible regulatory systems that California could adopt to promote safe and equitable access to certain substances in permitted legal contexts.”
Excluded from the bill’s provisions is mescaline (similar to psilocybin in its structure), which is a naturally occurring psychedelic protoalkaloid, present in the peyote cactus.
This is excluded from the bill. But, like many good things in our world, the peyote plant has almost reached endangered status and appropriately, it contains special significance spiritually to indigenous people.
This has caused conflict between advocate groups and indigenous groups on peyote plant status within a psychedelics reform model.
I guess we’ll all stay tuned for what is to progress further from this exciting psychedelic revolution. Who knows, maybe Biden will embrace it all too.
