California moves to decriminalize use of magic mushrooms and other natural psychedelics
California moves to decriminalize use of magic mushrooms and other natural psychedelics
California lawmakers approved a bill to decriminalize possession and personal use of certain natural psychedelics, including psilocybin, or magic mushrooms.
California lawmakers on Thursday narrowly approved a bill supported by veterans and criminal justice reform advocates to decriminalize the possession and personal use of a limited list of natural psychedelics, including “magic mushrooms.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom will now decide the fate of Senate Bill 58, which would remove criminal penalties for the possession and use of psilocybin and psilocin, the active ingredients in psychedelic mushrooms, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, known as ayahuasca. The bill also would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to study the therapeutic use of psychedelics and submit a report with its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.
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I'm a little disappointed that the appropriations committee required further studies before it goes into effect. Originally it was supposed to be effective immediately, but now it doesn't start till January of 2025.
Either way, this is great news for so many people struggling with mental health conditions. Really happy to see it. I'm thinking this transition will happen a lot faster than marijuana.
One note of caution, Gavin Newsom has refused to comment on this bill so far. No one really knows where he stands and so he could veto it. We just don't know.
Similarly, I think it's dumb that places are always starting with decriminalization instead of legalization. Let's be honest. We all know why they do both of these things. They're scared of not appearing hard enough on "crime". They know that there's a ton of scared voters who associate drugs with bad things and they are afraid of losing those voters.
We see the same thing happening in countless places with marijuana, too. Despite many places having already proven that legalization works and does not, in fact, open a portal to hell.
If we accept that shrooms shouldn't be illegal, it doesn't make sense to keep them illegal for longer. Similarly, it doesn't make sense that it's still illegal to sell them. Like, are they expecting that they just magically appear in the hands of consumers? No, I think they know exactly what they're doing and it's all just catering to the older voters who scare easily.
I agree with you in principal. But maybe we need baby steps to allow time for the general population's attitudes to change.
I live in Massachusetts, next door to "lovely, historic Concord, the Birthplace of the American Revolution". Marijuana has been legal, not just decriminalized, here for years and years. There was a proposal to open a cannabis shop in Concord a couple of years ago, and the locals were in a tizzy. I remember one comment in particular: "Do we really want busloads of SCHOOLCHILDREN unloading at the corner of Main St and Walden St [town center] and seeing a WEED shop?!?!?"
My response? "Oh, you mean near all the places that serve ALCOHOL for CONSUMPTION on the PREMISES?".
They didn't get it.
People have weird attitudes about these substances because they used to be illegal. Slowly moving them to illegal instead of just yanking off the band-aid helps. Not in all cases, obviously see above🙄), but in many.