Newsom's nonsense veto of psychedelics

On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation to decriminalize possession of certain psychedelic substances.

Senate Bill 58, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, sought to remove criminal sanctions for those who choose to use psychedelic substances. It also called for the California Health and Human Services Agency “to convene a workgroup to study and make recommendations on the establishment of a framework governing the therapeutic use” of psychedelics.

This editorial board has supported SB 58, and its previous iterations, on the grounds that government has no business telling people what they can do with their own bodies as long as they aren't harming anyone else.

If someone wants to take magic mushrooms out in the forest, that's no business of the police, the courts or politicians.

And yet, Gov. Newsom vetoed the bill on utterly incoherent grounds. On the one hand, Newsom understands that psychedelics do, in fact, have therapeutic potential.

“Psychedelics have proven to relieve people suffering from certain conditions such as depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other addictive personality traits,” he wrote in his veto message. “This is an exciting frontier and California will be on the front-end of leading it.”

But then Newsom decided to throw an unnecessary precondition on when psychedelics can or should be decriminalized. Specifically, Newsom says the state should first establish “regulated treatment guidelines — replete with dosing information, therapeutic guidelines, rules to prevent against exploitation during guided treatments, and medical clearance of no underlying psychoses.”

In Newsom's world, it makes sense to continue criminalizing victimless psychedelic possession until the state of California spends forever creating a new psychedelic therapy bureaucracy full of rules and regulations.

The formulation proposed by Sen. Wiener had it right. Decriminalize possession of psychedelics, because that shouldn't be a crime, and then study avenues for therapeutic use of psychedelics.

Once again, Newsom has chosen to derail efforts to further dismantle the failed war on drugs in California.