https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/17/california-bill-decriminalize-psychedelic-drugs
Pretty monumental if it passes.
This bill, unveiled on Thursday, would decriminalize possession and personal use of psilocybin, psilocyn, MDMA, LSD, ketamine, DMT, mescaline and ibogaine – all drugs that can be used for medical treatment. While the decriminalization would apply for any kind of possession or use, not just medical, the bill makes a point to tout the medical benefits of psychedelics, a strategy familiar to drug policy reform advocates.
“That’s how it worked with cannabis,” said Anthony Johnson, a longtime advocate and chief petitioner for Oregon’s Measure 110, the initiative that decriminalized personal possession of small amounts of all illicit drugs. “It’s definitely a way to help people that need it first and foremost, but also then to educate the public about these substances of how the drug war has been a failed policy and how there is a better approach.”
The bill would also expunge criminal records for people convicted of possession or personal use of these substances. It would create a taskforce to recommend which regulatory body would oversee personal and therapeutic use of these substances for mental health treatment.
Wiener did not include peyote as one of the substances because of a shortage of the drug among indigenous practitioners, he said. Peyote is a sacred plant for many indigenous tribes, and at the behest of the native community, the bill will not decriminalize peyote, or mescaline when it is sourced from peyote.
Pretty monumental if it passes.