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SAFE Banking Act Dead in This Congress, CA Natural Psychedelic Bill Refiled, More... (12/20/22)

The marijuana industry will remain without access to many services after Congress failed to act this year, the GAO looks at how the drug czar's office is performing, and more.

Marijuana Banking Reform Dead in This Congress. Efforts to provide state-legal marijuana businesses with access to banking and financial services have come to naught in this Congress. The push has been on to get the SAFE Banking Act (HR 1996) through the Senate after it passed the House on seven different occasions, most recently in July. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never called it for a vote and he and his Senate allies repeatedly blocked it from being attached to various spending bills as they held out for a full-blown legalization bill. One last chance for the act was the omnibus spending bill passed Tuesday, but it didn't include the act, either. This time, though, it was blocked not by Schumer but by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Psychedelics

California Psychedelic Decriminalization Bill is Back. Four months after state Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) pulled his bill to decriminalize certain psychedelics when it was gutted in committee, the bill has been refiled. Senate Bill 58 would decriminalize magic mushrooms and ayahuasca -- but not LSD or MDMA -- and is being backed by veterans and mental health professionals. The bill decriminalizes only plant- or fungi-based psychedelics.

Drug Policy

GAO: Office of National Drug Control Policy Met Some Strategy Requirements but Needs a Performance Evaluation Plan. The Government Accountability Office reported Monday on the performance of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP -- the drug czar's office) and found that the 2022 strategy "fully met some legal requirements, including setting long-range, measurable goals to address drug misuse. The Strategy partially met others related to identifying the resources to treat substance use disorders. But, it didn't include a systematic plan for increasing data collection."

Also, "The 2022 Strategy and accompanying documents vary in their level of compliance with selected statutory requirements. The Strategy fully met some requirements, including those related to comprehensive, long-range, quantifiable goals, and targets to accomplish those goals. The Strategy partially met other selected requirements, including those related to identifying resources for the treatment of substance use disorders. The Strategy does not address some statutory requirements, including some related to future planning. For example, the Strategy is to contain a systematic plan for increasing data collection, including to enable real time surveillance of drug control threats. However, as of December 2022, ONDCP has not created such a plan. GAO recommended in 2019 that ONDCP routinely implement an approach to meet the requirements for the 2020 Strategy and future iterations. Doing so will better position ONDCP to ensure that future strategies completely address all of the statutory requirements."

RI Recreational Marijuana Sales Begin, Berkeley Could Decriminallize LSD, More... (12/1/22)

A global coalition is calling on UN drug bureaucracies to condemn the sudden resumption of drug executions in Saudi Arabia, a new Gallup poll has continuing high support for marijuana legalization, and more.

Legal pot sales for adults have begun in Rhode Island. (Sondra Yruel/DPA)
Marijuana Policy

Gallup Poll Finds Support for Marijuana Legalization Steady at 68 Percent. A new Gallup poll finds that support for marijuana legalization remains at a record high 68 percent for the third year in a row. It's a remarkable evolution in public opinion over the past half-century, with support at a measly 12 percent in 1969, rising to 31 percent in 2000, and achieving majority support in 2013. In every Gallup poll since 2016, at least 60 percent have supported legalization.

Rhode Island Recreational Marijuana Sales Have Begun. As of today, five existing medical marijuana dispensaries are now "hybrid" stores, selling recreational as well a medical marijuana. The first sale was shortly after 5 a.m., when Mother Earth Wellness in Pawtucket opened its doors.

Harm Reduction

Ohio House Approves Fentanyl Test Strip Decriminalization Bill. The House on Wednesday approved a bill to try to reduce drug overdose deaths by decriminalizing the possession of fentanyl test strips, House Bill 456. Ohio saw 5,204 people die of drug overdoses in 2020, 81 percent of them involving fentanyl. Similar legislation has been filed in the Senate.

Psychedelics

Berkeley Health Commissioners Recommend Decriminalization of Use of Hallucinogens, Including LSD. The Bay area city's health commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend that the city council decriminalize the use of psychedelics, and they did not limit themselves to natural psychedelics, explicitly embracing the decriminalization of LSD as well. The city is now in line to become the first to decriminalize LSD if the city council approves it. Fifteen cities across the country have decriminalized natural psychedelics, but those measures excluded synthetic psychedelics such as LSD.

International

Global Coalition Calls on International Bodies to Condemn Saudi Arabia Drug Executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Harm Reduction International, and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty along with 32 other NGOs have called on the International Narcotics Control Board and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to act on urgent measures in response to the series of drug-related executions carried out by the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia since November 10, 2022. The groups called on both organisms to seek confirmation from the Saudi government of the status of dozens of people on death row and at imminent risk of execution and to demand that the Saudi government immediately halt all drug-related executions. The Saudi government had halted drug executions in January 2020, but suddenly and without warning resumed them on November 10 and announced 20 such executions on November 24. 

Report on Options for Safe Injection Sites, Berkeley Could Decriminalize LSD, More... (11/28/22)

Irish opposition parties are talking drug reform, the Congressional Research Service issues a report on how to get around legal proscriptions on safe injection sites, and more.

LSD in blotter acid form. There is a proposal in Berkeley to decriminalize it. (Creative Commons)
Psychedelics

Berkeley Ponders Becoming First City to Decriminalize Not Just Natural Psychedelics But LSD, Too. A proposed ordinance to decriminalize natural psychedelic drugs such as magic mushrooms that has been under study in the city for the past three years may be expanded to include the synthetic hallucinogen LSD as well. A pair of Berkeley community health commissioners are promoting the move, saying that LSD meets the definition of a psychedelic and that "nobody deserves to go to jail for having a psychedelic experience." They have now rewritten the 2019 proposed ordinance to include LSD, prompting Decriminalize Nature, the original sponsors o the ordinance to now oppose it. The Community Health Commission is set to vote Tuesday on whether to refer the rewritten ordinance to the city council. At least 15 towns or cities across the US have passed natural psychedelic decriminalization or lowest priority ordinances, but Berkeley's would be the first to include LSD.

Harm Reduction

Congressional Research Service Provide Options for Allowing Safe Injection Sites The service, a nonpartisan agency that provides information on all kinds of issues to Congress, has issued a report highlighting the "uncertainty" of the federal government's position on safe injection sites, but also pointing out that the facilities could operate securely if Congress passed legislation barring the Justice Department from interfering with them, similar to actions it has taken to allow state medical marijuana laws to be implemented. The Trump administration Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block a Philadelphia safe injection site from opening, and the Biden Justice Department has so far shown much less enthusiasm for attacking the harm reduction facilities, but their fate remains uncertain. While the Biden administration is evaluating the legality of the facilities, CRS said: "Congress could resolve that uncertainty by enacting legislation. If Congress decided to allow supervised consumption sites to operate, it could consider the breadth of such authorization. One option would be to exempt supervised consumption sites from CSA control entirely" Or Congress could approve a temporary spending bill rider "to exempt from federal prosecution facilities operating in compliance with state and local law, as it has done with state-sanctioned medical marijuana activities." A third option "would be for Congress to impose specific registration requirements for supervised consumption sites under the CSA, as it has done for entities that administer medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction," CRS continued. The report is Recent Developments in Opioid Regulation Under the Controlled Substances Act.

International

.Two opposition parties are championing major reforms in drug policy, albeit with two distinct proposals. People Before Profit's Gino Kenny has filed a private members' bill to decriminalize the possession of up to seven grams of marijuana, while the Labor Party is proposing a broader drug decriminalization bill. Kenny said marijuana prohibition is "a waste of time and resources" and that "there is a groundswell of opinion for a different narrative and a different status quo." The Labor Party, meanwhile is set to file its drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, with proponents arguing again that persecuting drug users was a waste of the police and the courts' time. But Minister of State at the Department of Health Frank Feighan said that the current government follows a drug strategy that embodies a "health-led rather than a criminal justice approach to drug use," it has no plans to decriminalize any drugs. 

CA Psychedelic Legalization Advances, AR MJ Legalization Back on Ballot, More... (8/12/22)

Maryland officials finalize the ballot language for a marijuana legalization referendum, a Florida marijuana legalization bill dies without a hearing, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Arkansas Supreme Court Puts Marijuana Legalization Initiative Back on the Ballot, But Votes May Not Be Counted Pending Final Ruling. The state Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the secretary of state to certify a marijuana legalization initiative for the November ballot. The ruling came after the initiative's sponsor, Responsible Growth Arkansas, sued the state Board of Election Commissioners for removing it from the ballot even though it had garnered enough valid voter signatures to qualify. The board said it declined to certify the measure because the ballot title and popular name for the measure was misleading. While voters will have the chance to vote on it come November, their votes may not count. The court has not made a final decision on the merits of the election board's refusal to certify the initiative, and if it rules in favor of the board, those votes will be null and void.

Florida Marijuana Legalization Bill Dies Without Hearing. A marijuana legalization bill filed state Reps. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D) and Michael Grieco (D) has died in the House without a hearing. House Bill1117would have legalized up to 2.5 ounces for people 21 and over and allowed for the home cultivation of up to six plants. "It's no surprise the Republican controlled legislature doesn't want to legalize adult-use cannabis," Smith says. "They didn't want medical cannabis either, but 71% of voters disagreed. And just like they did with medical cannabis, eventually the voters will overrule the legislature. It's not if, but when. Unless of course, the legislature succeeds in making it harder for voters approve citizen-led constitutional amendments, as they are currently trying to do with HB 7111 and HJR 57. Floridians need to get woke."

Maryland Officials Certify Final Text of Marijuana Legalization Ballot Question. After the legislature approved two marijuana bills earlier this year, voters will have the chance to vote on marijuana legalization in November, and now election officials have finalized the language of the ballot question that voters will be asked: "Do you favor the legalization of the use of cannabis by an individual who is at least 21 years of age on or after July 1, 2023, in the State of Maryland?" Meanwhile, the Department of Legislative Services has published a summary of the question for the ballot that describes its legislative history, details current marijuana laws, and notes that 18 other states have already legalized marijuana.

Massachusetts: Governor Signs Bill Creating "Social Equity Trust Fund" for Aspiring Marijuana Businesses. Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has signed into law Senate Bill 3096, which seeks to promote greater diversity among those participating in the state's licensed marijuana industry and lays the groundwork for the establishment of on-site marijuana consumption facilities. Specifically, the measure creates a "Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund to encourage the full participation… of entrepreneurs from communities that have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement." Money in the fund "shall be used to make grants and loans, including no-interest loans and forgivable loans, to social equity program participants and economic empowerment priority applicants." In addition, the bill provides guidance for the eventual licensing of onsite adult-use consumption facilities.

Psychedelics

California Bill to Legalize Some Psychedelics Set for Assembly Floor Vote. A bill that would legalize some psychedelic substances, including DMT and psilocybin mushrooms, and which has already passed the Senate is now headed for an Assembly floor vote. Senate Bill 519, filed by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), passed its final hurdle before a floor vote by being approved in the Assembly Appropriations Committee Thursday. The bill would legalize the possession of 2 grams of DMT, 15 grams of ibogaine, 0.01 grams of LSD, 4 grams of mescaline, 2 grams of psilocybin or 4 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, and 4 grams of MDMA.

San Francisco Supervisors File Lowest Law Enforcement Priority Psychedelic Measure. City lawmakers have filed a measure that would effectively move the city toward psychedelic decriminalization. It is not a legalization or decrim bill, but a lowest priority bill. The measure reads as follows: "City resources not be used for any investigation, detention, arrest, or prosecution" related to use of Entheogenic Plants listed on the Federally Controlled Substances Schedule 1 list." The bill is sponsored by Supervisors Dean Preston (District 5) and cosponsor Supervisor Hillary Ronen (District 9).

Psychedelic Reform Possibilities in 2022 [FEATURE]

Activists in Denver opened psychedelic floodgates for the United States with their successful psilocybin decriminalization initiative in 2019. Since that time, the trickle of bills and initiatives seeking to undo the criminalization of psychedelics has turned into a torrent.

Is it the year of the magic mushroom? (Creative Commons)
In 2020, Oregon and Washington, DC broke things open even wider with Oregon's therapeutic psilocybin initiative and DC's entheogenic plant decrim. (Oregon also passed the broader general drug decrim initiative). A number of towns and cities, most notably in California, Massachusetts, and Michigan, have subsequently enacted psychedelic reforms.

This year, psychedelic reform measures are popping up like mushrooms after a rain shower, with serious decriminalization or legalization efforts in several states, and either therapeutic or study efforts (or therapeutic study efforts) in many more. Many, perhaps most, of these bills will not pass this year, but then, legislating controversial topics is seldom a single-year process. Initiatives probably have a better chance of success -- provided they can make it to the ballot.

With a big tip of the hat to Ballotpedia and Marijuana Moment, here's is what we've got going in 2022:

California

There are two different paths to psychedelic legalization this year, one via the legislature and one as a potential November ballot initiative.

Senate Bill 519 would legalize the possession and unremunerated sharing of psilocybin (2 grams, or 4 grams of magic mushrooms), psilocin, DMT (2 grams), LSD (0.01 gram), MDMA (4 grams), and mescaline for people 21 and older. The bill passed the Senate last year, but sponsor Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) put it on pause, signaling he needed more time to build support in the Assembly.

Regardless of what happens in Sacramento, activists with Decriminalize California have drafted the California Psilocybin Initiative of 2022 , which "decriminalizes under state law the cultivation, manufacture, processing, distribution, transportation, possession, storage, consumption, and retail sale of psilocybin mushrooms, the hallucinogenic chemical compounds contained in them, and edible products and extracts derived from psilocybin mushrooms."

Whether the initiative will qualify for the ballot will be known soon; campaigners have only until March 13 to come up with 623,212 valid voter signatures. As of mid-February, they had not reported gathering 25 percent of the signatures, as is required when that benchmark is reached, so that is not a good sign.

Colorado

New Approach PAC, which supported the Oregon therapeutic psilocybin initiative in 2020, as well as various marijuana legalization initiatives, is supporting a pair of psychedelic reform initiatives, both known as the Natural Medicine Healing Act. The first would legalize the possession, cultivation and an array of entheogenic substances, as well as establish a regulatory model for psychedelics therapy. The other would initially legalize psilocybin and psilocin alone for personal adult use while and allow for their sale and administration in a therapeutic setting.

Meanwhile, activists with Decriminalize Nature Boulder County have filed the Legal Possession and Use of Entheogenic Plants and Fungi initiative, which would allow people 21 and over to possess, cultivate, gift and deliver psilocybin, psilocyn, ibogaine, mescaline and DMT. The initiative would also allow psychedelic services for therapeutic, spiritual, guidance, or harm reduction purposes with or without accepting payment.

Both initiatives will need 124,632 valid voter signatures by August 8 to qualify for the November ballot.

Florida

State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Brook (D) has filed Senate Bill 348, which would require the state to research the medicinal benefits of psychedelic substances such as ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin. The bill directs the state Health Department to "conduct a study evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies" such as those substances, "in treating mental health and other medical conditions," such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. A companion version of the bill, House Bill 193 has been filed in the House. Neither has moved since last fall, though.

Hawaii

A bill to set up a state working group to study the therapeutic effects of psilocybin mushrooms, Senate Bill 3160, won approval in the Senate Health Committee this month and now awaits a Senate floor vote. Companion legislation, House Bill 2400, is awaiting action in the House.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 738 would decriminalize psilocybin by removing from the state's schedule of controlled substances and requiring the establishment of therapeutic psilocybin treatment centers, which was filed more than a year ago, awaits action in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Iowa

There are a trio of psilocybin bills that are all technically still alive, although they were filed a year ago and have yet to see action. House File 549 would deschedule psilocybin, but a Public Safety subcommittee recommended indefinite postponement last March, and it remains postponed indefinitely. House File 636 would set up a regime for therapeutic psilocybin, and House File 480 would decriminalize certain psychedelics for use by a patient diagnosed with a terminal illness or a life-threatening disease or condition. Neither of those bills have moved out of committee.

Kansas

House Bill 2465 would decriminalize the possession of less than 100 grams of psilocybin and make possession of more than 100 grams a misdemeanor. The bill would also legalize the home cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms. Introduced last month, the bill is now before the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice.

Maine

Legislative Document 1582 would enact "the Maine Psilocybin Services Act, which establishes a regulatory framework in order to provide psilocybin products to clients in Maine." Although it is not yet officially dead, it failed to get reported out of the House Health and Human Services Committee earlier this month.

Maryland

A pair of complementary bills, House Bill 1367and Senate Bill 709, would create "the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Alternative Therapies Fund to support the study of the effectiveness of and improving access to alternative therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans." While there has been a Senate hearing on its bill, neither bill has moved out of committee yet.

Massachusetts

House Bill 1494would establish an interagency task force to study the public health and social justice implications of legalizing the possession, consumption, transportation, and distribution of naturally cultivated entheogenic plants and fungi. It is currently before the Judiciary Committee.

Michigan

Sen. Jeff Irwin (D) filed Senate Bill 631 last September. It would legalize the possession, cultivation, and delivery of plant- and fungi-derived psychedelics, such as mescaline and psilocybin. The bill would free people from criminal liability except for "receiving money or other valuable consideration for the entheogenic plant or fungus." In other words, no commercial sales, but people can charge a "reasonable fee for counseling, spiritual guidance, or a related service that is provided in conjunction with the use of an entheogenic plant or fungus under the guidance and supervision of an individual providing the service."

Meanwhile, activists with Decriminalize Nature, Decriminalize Nature Michigan, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy earlier this month filed the Michigan Initiative for Community Healing, which would legalize the use and possession of a broad range of natural entheogens and allow for "supervision, guidance, therapeutic, harm reduction, spiritual, counseling, and related supportive services with or without remuneration."

The measure has yet to be approved for signature gathering -- a decision on that will come next month -- and if and when it is, it will need 340,047 valid voter signatures by May 27 to qualify for the November ballot.

New Hampshire

A bipartisan group of legislators have filed House Bill 1349-FN, which would decriminalize the possession of psilocybin mushrooms. The bill would decriminalize the possession of up to 12 grams of 'shrooms, enough for several psychedelic experiences. The clock is ticking on this one; it must clear Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee by March 10 or it dies.

New York

Assemblyman Pat Burke (D) has filed a bill, Assembly Bill 8569, that would legalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes and create facilities where the mushrooms could be grown and provided to patients. It is a set-up similar to what Oregon voters approved last year. The bill provides a list of qualifying medical conditions but also says psilocybin could be recommended "for any conditions" certified by a practitioner. The Department of Health would be responsible for providing a training course for practitioners and licensing the psilocybin centers.

Meanwhile, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D/WF) has filed Assembly Bill 6065, which decriminalizes psilocybin. That bill has been referred to Assembly Health Committee.

Oklahoma

State Reps. Daniel Pae (R) and Logan Phillips (R) have filed a pair of bills that would promote research into psilocybin's therapeutic potential, and one of them would also decriminalize small-time possession of the drug. The bills are designed to give lawmakers different options to reach similar objectives, but Pae's bill would also decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce and half of psilocybin. Pae's bill, House Bill 3414, has been referred to House Public Health Committee, while Phillips' bill, House Bill 3174, =has been referred to House Rules Committee.

Pennsylvania

Rep. Tracy Pennicuick (R-Montgomery County) filed House Bill 1959, "Providing for research and clinical studies of psilocybin, for duties of Department of Health, for duties of institutional review boards, for duties of authorized psilocybin manufacturers, for duties of approved investigators and for reports" last October. It was referred to the House Health Committee, where it has remained ever since.

Utah

Rep. Brady Brammer (R-Highland) has filed House Bill 167, which would create a Mental Illness Psychotherapy Drug Task Force that would "study and make recommendations on drugs that may assist in treating mental illness." Although not mentioned specifically in the bill, supporters say psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, is the drug most likely to be considered by the task force. The bill passed the House last week and now heads for the Senate.

Vermont

Rep. Brian Cins (D/P) filed House Bill 309, "An act relating to decriminalizing certain chemical compounds found in plants and fungi that are commonly used for medicinal, spiritual, religious, or entheogenic purposes" 51 weeks ago. It has sat in the House Judiciary Committee without moving ever since, although it did get a hearing in January.

Virginia

In January, the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee voted to delay consideration of a bill to decriminalize a wide range of psychedelics, House Bill 898, until 2023. The move came even after the bill was amended by its sponsor, Del. Dawn Adams (D), to only apply to medical practitioners and people using psychedelics with a practitioner. The object for the delay is to build support and try again next year. A similar bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 262, remains alive.

Washington

State Senators Jesse Salomon (D) and Liz Lovelett (D) have introduced a bill that would allow people to use psilocybin and psilocin, the psychoactive ingredients in magic mushrooms, with the assistance of a trained and state-licensed psilocybin services administrator. The bill, Senate Bill 5660, is titled the Psilocybin Wellness and Opportunity Act. People would have to go to a licensed service center to partake, unless they suffer certain medical conditions or are unable to travel, in which case they could receive psilocybin at home and meet remotely with a facilitator. The bill got a Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee hearing earlier this month, but remains in committee.

There is also likely to be a ballot initiative to broadly decriminalize drugs in 2022, similar to what neighboring Oregon voters passed in 2020. That effort, which was foiled in 2020 because of the pandemic, is being led by Commit to Change WA.

NYC Opens Nation's First Official Supervised Injection Sites, Toronto Moves Toward Drug Decrim, More... (11/30/21)

A pair of supervised injection sites are now operating in New York City, NORML issues a report on marijuana legislative victories in the states, and more.

Blotter acid. The Bombay High Court has ruled that the blotter paper must be weighed along with the LSD for sharing purposes.
Marijuana Policy

NORML Issues Report Highlighting 2021 State Legislative Victories. "State legislators in 2021 enacted over 50 laws liberalizing marijuana policies in more than 25 states, according to a report issued Monday by the National Organization of the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)," the group said in a blog post. "Specifically, legislatures in five states -- Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia -- enacted laws legalizing adult-use marijuana possession and regulating retail cannabis markets. These legislative victories mark a significant change from past years, when similar laws were primarily enacted via citizens' initiatives, not by legislative action. In total, 18 states -- comprising nearly one-half of the US population -- now have laws on the books regulating adult use marijuana production and retail sales. Many states also took actions facilitating the expungement or sealing of past marijuana convictions. Over the past several months, state officials have vacated an estimated 2.2 million marijuana convictions. Numerous states in 2021 also enacted legislation expanding medical cannabis access and stimulating greater diversity among licensed marijuana businesses."

Harm Reduction

New York City Opens Supervised Injection Sites. Supervised injection sites are now operating in East Harlem and Washington Heights -- a first for the city and the country. The two sites are already operating as needle exchanges. Mayor Bill de Blasio began calling for the harm reduction intervention in 2018, and on Tuesday, he and the city Health Department announced that "the first publicly recognized Overdose Prevention Center services in the nation have commenced."

"New York City has led the nation's battle against COVID-19, and the fight to keep our community safe doesn't stop there. After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city. And we will not hesitate to take it," de Blasio said in a statement announcing the move. "Overdose Prevention Centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis. I'm proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible."

The sites are not operated by the city but by two nonprofits, New York Harm Reduction Educators and the Washington Heights Corner Project. City officials said they have had "productive conversations" with state and federal officials and believe the federal government will not interfere becauwe of "a shared sense of urgency" around record overdose deaths.

International

Toronto Moves Toward Drug Decriminalization. Canada's largest city is preparing to take the first step toward municipal drug decriminalization after the city's top health officer, Dr. Eilenn de Villa, recommended Monday that the board of health approve a request to the federal government to exempt city residents from criminal charges for small-time drug possession. "The status quo approach to the drug poisoning crisis is not working," the report said. "There is an urgent need for a comprehensive public health approach to drug policy that removes structural barriers to health care and social services, provides alternatives to the toxic drug supply, and enhances and expands services to improve the health and well-being of Toronto's communities."

De Villa is recommending that the board of health direct her to apply for the exemption by year's end. If the board does so, she will not need city council approval to move forward. It will then be up to Health Canada to approve or deny the exemption. The city of Vancouver sought a similar exemption in March, but Health Canada has yet to rule on that request. The plan has the support of the police and Mayor John Tory.

Bombay High Court Rules Blotter Paper Should Be Included When Weighing LSD for Charging Purposes. The High Court in India's largest city has ruled that the weight of blotter paper is an integral part of contraband seizures and the paper should be included when weighing LSD for charging purposes. "I have held that having regard to the findings in Hira Singh's judgment passed by the Supreme Court and the objective of the NDPS Act, blotter paper forms an integral part of LSD and the blotter paper will have to be considered for taking weight of the LSD. The impugned order is quashed and set aside," Justice Dere pronounced.

A lower court had ruled that the blotter paper should not be included when weighing the drug. Indian drug law says that possession of more than a tenth of a gram of LSD indicates a commercial quantity, but the weight of a single blotter weighed by authorities came in at more than six tenths of a gram, signifying that the courts would consider a single hit of blotter LSD to be evidence of intent to deal drugs.

In the US, the US Sentencing Commission has weighed in on the issue and come to the opposite conclusion: "In the case of LSD on a carrier medium (e.g., a sheet of blotter paper), do not use the weight of the LSD/carrier medium. Instead, treat each dose of LSD on the carrier medium as equal to 0.4 mg of LSD for the purposes of the Drug Quantity Table."

Psychedelics at the Statehouse 2021 [FEATURE]

A new front in the war against the war on drugs has opened up. It has been less than two years since voters in Denver decriminalized the possession of magic mushrooms, but since then, a number of cities have moved in a similar direction. More dramatically, in last November's elections, Oregon voted to allow the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the primary active ingredient in those mushrooms (as well as voting to decriminalize the possession of all drugs) and Washington, DC, voted to effectively decriminalize "natural entheogens" by making them the lowest law enforcement priority.

Psilocbye mexicana. A magic mushroom. (Creative Commons)
This year, psychedelic reform is making its way to statehouses around the country -- and it has already scored its first victory in New Jersey (see below). Spurred by the potential of psychedelics in treating mental health disorders as well as by the dawning recognition that these drugs are just not that dangerous, and just possibly the racial and class composition of psychedelic aficionados, the movement to end the war on psychedelics is buzzing like never before.

The movement is not without controversy even among drug reformers, with some decrying "psychedelic exceptionalism" and demanding the decriminalization of all drugs, and others wondering why natural psychedelics like psilocybin should be treated differently from synthetic ones like LSD, but those debates are for another article. Here, we simply marvel at the rapid movement on the psychedelic front as we review what is popping up in the state legislatures.

And here is what is going on (with a big tip of the hat to Marijuana Moment, which provides a list of marijuana, psychedelic, and other drug reform bills to its paying subscribers):

California -- Psychedelic Decriminalization

Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) and three cosponsors have filed Senate Bill 519, which would make it legal for persons 21 and over to possess and share psilocybin and psilocyin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline, LSD, ketamine, and MDMA. The bill would also mandate that the Department of Public Health create a working group to make recommendations to the legislature on the regulation and therapeutic use of these substances. The bill has been referred to the Public Safety and Health committees and is set for a hearing on April 6.

Connecticut -- Psilocybin Health Benefits Study

Rep. Josh Elliott (D-Hamden) and five cosponsors have filed HB 06296, which would create a task force to study the health benefits of psilocybin. The measure has been before the Joint Committee on Public Health since January 29.

Florida -- Therapeutic Psilocbyin

Reps. Mike Grieco (D-Miami-Dade) and Nick Duran (D-Miami-Dade) have filed HO549, which would create a path for the use of psilocybin as a mental health treatment by establishing a Psilocybin Advisory Board and ordering the Health Department to adopt rules and regulations and exceptions for the therapeutic administration of psilocybin. The bill would also make psilocybin possession offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. It is now in the Professions and Public Health Services Subcommittee of the Health and Human Services Committee, and has also been referred to two more subcommittees.

Iowa -- Therapeutic Psilocybin

Rep. Jeff Shipley (R-Birmingham) has filed House File 636, which would create the Psilocybin Services Act with the Department of Public Health in charge of developing rules and regulations allowing for the therapeutic administration of psilocybin. The bill envisions licensed psilocybin service centers, psilocybin service facilitators, and psilocybin testing laboratories. It is currently before the Senate Public Safety Committee. The bill is a fallback for Shipley, whose earlier House File 459, which would have simply decriminalized psilocybin and psilocyin, has already been killed in subcommittee.

New Jersey -- Reducing Psilocybin Penalties

Senator Nick Scutari (D-Linden) filed S3256, which lessens the penalty for the possession of any amount of psilocybin from a third degree misdemeanor to a disorderly persons offense punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. The bill passed both the Assembly and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in February.

New York -- Psilocybin Decriminalization

Rep. Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) has filed AO6065, which would decriminalize psilocybin and psilocin by deleting them from the state's register of controlled substances. The bill was referred to the Assembly Health Committee on March 8.

Texas -- Therapeutic Study

State Rep. Steve Dominguez (D-Brownsville) has filed House Bill 1802, which calls for a study by the Health Department and the Texas Medical Board of the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies including MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine for the treatment of mental health and other medical conditions, including chronic pain and migraines. The bill was referred to the House Public Health Committee on March 11.

Vermont -- Natural Psychedelic Decriminalization

Rep. Brian Cina (D) and nine cosponsors have filed H0309, which would decriminalize the possession of ayahuasca, DMT, ibogaine, peyote, and psilocybin and psilocin and "any plants or fungi containing the substances" by removing them from the state's schedule of regulated drugs. The bill has been in the Committee on the Judiciary since February.

We will have to check back on this once the legislators have gone home.

Chronicle AM: US Afghan Opium Fiasco, New Zealand LSD Microdosing Trials, More... (12/11/19)

Expungements for past minor pot offenses are beginning in Chicago, clinical trials on LSD microdosing are about to get underway in New Zealand, Kentucky's new Democratic governor moves to restore voting rights for ex-felons, and more.

The opium poppy defeated all American efforts to suppress it in Afghanistan, US officials have conceded. (UNODC)
Marijuana Policy

Illinois' Largest County Begins Marijuana Expungements. Cook County (Chicago) State's Attorney Kim Foxx filed the first motions Wednesday to expunge past low-level marijuana convictions under provisions of the state's marijuana legalization law. The law allows for people convicted of possession of under 30 grams prior to legalization to have their records referred for pardon and expungement, providing they were nonviolent offenses. People convicted of possession of more than 30 grams or who committed a violent offense will have to have their convictions reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Hundreds of thousands could see their convictions cleared.

Vermont Should Legalize Marijuana Sales, Top Health Official Says. Cynthia Seivwright, director of the state Department of Health’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs, said Monday allowing legal marijuana sales in the state would better protect public health than current policy does. The state has legalized possession and cultivation, but not sales. "Without the regulation, we don’t know what’s in it," Seivwright said. "We can’t control the potency of it. We can’t control the access, and we definitely don’t want children and adolescents to have access to it….We at the Health Department support a regulated system."

Psychedelics

New Zealand to Host First Clinical Trial on LSD Microdosing. Researchers at the University of Auckland have received final approval for clinical trials on the effects of microdosing. The researchers aim to discover whether microdosing can have positive effects on mood, creativity, and awareness. "Users report improvements in mood, wellbeing, improved attention and cognition, so those are the things we will be measuring… We’ll be giving microdoses on very tightly controlled prescriptions to take at home — it’ll be a more realistic assessment of what microdosing actually does," said lead researcher Suresh Muthukumaraswamy

Foreign Policy

Documents Show US Officials Said Almost Everything They Did to Fight Opium in Afghanistan Backfired. In a cache of confidential government interviews and other documents obtained by the Washington Post, dozens of American military and political officials admitted that their efforts to dismantle the Afghan opium economy did not work, and in many cases made things worse. The Post reported that "of all the failures in Afghanistan, the war on drugs has been perhaps the most feckless."

Sentencing Policy

Kentucky Governor to Restore Voting Rights to 100,000 Ex-Felons. Gov. Andy Beshear (D) vowed during his inaugural address Tuesday to restore voting rights to Kentuckians with felony convictions. That could mean as many as 100,000 new voters for the Bluegrass State. Kentucky is one of only two states that have lifetime bans on voting for ex-felons (the other is Iowa). Beshear is finishing work started by his father, Steve, who while governor back in 2015 issued an executive order to restore voting rights to 100,000 convicted felons. But that order was suspended by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin days after taking office in 2016.

Does Microdosing Psychedelics Really Improve Your Life?

Microdosing psychedelics has been a thing for awhile now. It is the practice of ingesting drugs such as LSD or psilocybin (the stuff that puts the magic in magic mushrooms) in amounts too small to create a psychedelic experience in a bid to improve focus and creativity, boost mood, or quell anxiety.

LSD blotters. How much is a microdose? (Creative Commons)
Microdosing has developed a laudatory literature -- see Ayelet Waldman's 2017 A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life and Michael Pollan's 2018 How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence -- but next to no serious scientific study.

Until now. In findings first presented at the June Beyond Psychedelics conference in Prague (and to be published as three separate research papers later this year), University of Toronto researchers offered fascinating insights into the how, why, and results of using small amounts of psychedelics for therapeutic effects.

In a research announcement, cognitive neuroscientist and study coauthor Thomas Anderson said his interest in the topic was sparked when reviewed the scientific literature and found plenty of anecdotal reports but a lack of scientific research on the practice.

"There's currently a renaissance going on in psychedelic research with pilot trials and promising studies of full-dose MDMA (ecstasy) use for post-traumatic stress disorder and of psilocybin use within healthy populations or to treat depression and end-of-life anxiety," said Anderson. "There hasn't been the same research focus on microdosing. We didn't have answers to the most basic epidemiological questions -- who is doing this and what are they doing?"

Anderson and a team of researchers decided to do something no one had done before: ask the users themselves about their experiences. The researchers identified microdosing communities on Reddit and other social media forums and sent them an anonymous online survey asking about the quantity and frequency of their psychedelic use, reasons for microdosing, effect on mood, focus and creativity, and the benefits and drawbacks of the practice. The survey generated 1.390 initial responses, with 909 respondents answering all questions. Two-thirds of the respondents were either current or past microdosers.

"We wanted to ensure the results produced a good basis for future psychedelic science," Anderson said.

What they found was that microdosers reported positive effects, including improved focus and productivity, better connection with others, and reductions in migraines. Quantitatively, microdosers scored lower than non-microdosers on scales measuring negative emotionality and dysfunctional attitude.

Microdosers did report some drawbacks to the practice, but those were related more to the illegal status of psychedelics than to the practice itself.

"The most prevalently reported drawback was not an outcome of microdosing, but instead dealt with illegality, stigma and substance unreliability," says Anderson. "Users engage in black market criminalized activities to obtain psychedelics. If you're buying what your dealer says is LSD, it could very well be something else."

The survey did help clarify the frequency of microdosing -- most respondents reported using every three days, while a smaller group did it once a week -- and just what constituted a microdose.

"Typical doses aren't well established," said Anderson. "We think it's about 10 mcg or one-tenth of an LSD tab, or 0.2 grams of dried mushrooms. Those amounts are close to what participants reported in our data."

But accurate dosing was another problem area: "With microdoses, there should be no 'trip' and no hallucinations. The idea is to enhance something about one's daily activities, but it can be very difficult to divide a ½-cm square of LSD blotting paper into 10 equal doses. The LSD might not be evenly distributed on the square and a microdoser could accidentally 'trip' by taking too much or not taking enough," Anderson said.

"The goal of the study was to create a foundation that could support future work in this area, so I'm really excited about what these results can offer future research," he explained. "The benefits and drawbacks data will help ensure we can ask meaningful questions about what participants are reporting. Our future research will involve running lab-based, randomized-control trials where psychedelics are administered in controlled environments. This will help us to better characterize the therapeutic and cognitive-enhancing effects of psychedelics in very small doses."

Eventually, the science will catch up to the practice. In the meantime, microdosers are going to microdose. Anderson has a scholarly caution for them: "We wouldn't suggest that people microdose, but if they are going to, they should use Erlich reagent (a drug testing solution) to ensure they are not getting something other than LSD."

This article was produced by Drug Reporter, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

You Won't Believe Which Middle East Theocrat Has Okayed Psychedelics Treatment

In a move barely noticed in the West, more than three years ago, Iran's Grand Ayatollah Rohani issued a formal legal ruling -- a "fatwa" -- declaring that the use of entheogens and psychedelics was permissible ("ḥalāl") for Shi'i Muslims for purposes of treatment and spiritual growth.

Iran's Grand Ayatollah Rohani (Wikipedia)
Grand Ayatollah Rohani's fatwa specified that such use should be undertaken under the direction and supervision of qualified experts, but it did not specify which psychoactive substances were meant to be included. The fatwa, however, was delivered after long discussions with petitioners about the effects of DMT, ayahuasca, haoma (or soma), LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, ibogaine, and marijuana.

Sufi mystic, Islamic scholar and psychedelic practitioner Wahid Azal explained what happened in an interview with Reality Sandwich. Another Shi'i scholar approached him about opening a dialog with the Shi'i religious establishment in an effort to get some sort of formal legal opinion about the approach to the therapeutic and spiritual use of entheogens:

To make a long story short, after well over a year and a half of back and forth discussions and correspondences between my friend (and one other individual) with the office of Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Sadeq Hussaini Rohani in Qom, Iran; in mid-March 2014, via email, the Grand Ayatollah issued a formal legal ruling (that is, a fatwa) determining the use of entheogens and psychoactive substances to be licit and thus permissible (ḥalāl) for Shi'i Muslims provided it be under the direction and supervision of qualified experts (ahl al-ikhtiṣāṣ), and that, moreover, such plant substances as a rule do not impair the mind. In the final missive before the decision, the questioner specifically underscored the issue of the visionary component of these plants, where people have reported visions of paradise and hell, and Grand Ayatollah Rohani's fatwa finds no objections here either.
 

Rohani could have been open to mind-altering drugs because the psychedelics have a resemblance to Esfand, also known as Syrian rue (peganum harmala), which contains the psychoactive indole alkaloid harmaline, a central nervous system stimulant and MAO inhibitor used for thousands of years in the region. According to at least one Shi'i tradition, the Prophet Mohammed took esfand for 50 days.

Whatever the precise theological reasoning behind the Rohani's fatwa, with it, Iran could leapfrog Western nations when it comes to psychedelic research. Although psychedelics are seeing a research renaissance in the West, research here is limited by their criminalized legal status, as well as lack of funding. But the Islamic Republic has cleared the way.

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