CA Could Decriminalize Psychedelic Drugs Under New Bill

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Psychedelic drugs could be decriminalized in California as soon as next year with the introduction of a new bill. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced Tuesday that he will introduce a bill to decriminalize the possession of psychedelics when the legislature reconvenes.

Over the last several years, amounting evidence from researchers has revealed that psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of "magic" mushrooms and similar drugs, could be used to treat depression and anxiety.

"These drugs have been shown to have medicinal value treating depression, PTSD and other conditions," Wiener tweeted Tuesday.

The Golden State would be joining Oregon, where residents voted last week to decriminalize and ultimately legalize psilocybin. The District of Columbia also voted to decriminalize the compound.

"There's strong support for ending the failed War on Drugs, which criminalizes communities of color and those suffering from addiction," Wiener tweeted Tuesday. "People need treatment, not prison."

Wiener said he is working with Assembly members Evan Low (D-Campbell) and Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles) on the bill.

The 2020 election saw voters take significant steps toward decriminalizing drugs across many states, as Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Mississippi and Montana all passed legislation to legalize marijuana, according to multiple reports.

And Oregon didn't just vote to decriminalize psychedelics, it became the first state to decriminalize possession of all personal use drugs, including small amounts of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines. This means the punishment for holding such drugs will not result in jail time, but such possessions could still be be ticketed.

Oakland also adopted a resolution last year that decriminalized natural psychedelic compounds that are derived from plants and fungi.

Meanwhile, Washington D.C. residents voted to also decriminalize such compounds from plants and fungi, but Congress could still overturn this law.

While California has a long way to go before joining Oregonians in this significant of a change, Wiener's proposed legislation could be a step in that direction.

Psychiatry Professor Mathew Johnson of Johns Hopkins University, who has researched the possible pharmaceutical uses of psychedelics since 1996, says that psychedelics could transform the field of psychiatry, Fast Company reported last week.

A January study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, demonstrated that a single psilocybin dose was able to produce an antidepressant and anxiolytic response in cancer patients that lasted for five years.

"Participants overwhelmingly (71–100%) attributed positive life changes to the psilocybin-assisted therapy experience and rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives," researchers wrote in the study.

Another research paper, from Johns Hopkins, in 2018 also revealed that psilocybin has a "low potential for abuse."

"When rats push a lever to receive psilocybin, they don’t keep pushing the lever like they do for drugs such as cocaine, alcohol or heroin," researchers from Johns Hopkins wrote in the study.

“We should be clear that psilocybin is not without risks of harm, which are greater in recreational than medical settings, but relatively speaking, looking at other drugs both legal and illegal, it comes off as being the least harmful in different surveys and across different countries,” Johnson wrote in the 2018 study.

2/ Last week, Oregon voted to legalize psilocybin (a psychedelic) & Washington DC decriminalized psychedelics.

There’s strong support for ending the failed War on Drugs, which criminalizes communities of color & those suffering from addiction.

People need treatment, not prison.
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) November 10, 2020