Pass SB 519, respect bodily autonomy

American public opinion has taken a decisive shift against the criminalization of marijuana.

Today, most Americans, even many conservatives and Republicans, recognize the folly of bringing down the hammer of the criminal justice system on people for marijuana.

While marijuana use may or may not be advisable, like alcohol or tobacco, using the criminal justice system to stop people from using it is widely seen as a waste of finite policing resources as well as a disproportionate response to what’s almost always a victimless vice.

The same arguments hold for psychedelic drugs, which have seen a revival of sorts in recent years.

With pending FDA trials almost certain to provide legal access to once-demonized drugs like MDMA (known as “ecstasy”) and psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) in the coming years, as well as the rise of microdosing, there is growing interest in psychedelic drugs and the laws around them.

Sen. Scott Wiener, D-san Francisco, has pushed legislation to decriminalize possession of certain psychedelics and to instruct the State Department of Public Health to convene a working group to make recommendations over how to handle psychedelic drugs.

The legislation, Senate Bill 519, has already been approved in the state Senate and awaits advancement in the Assembly. We have previously editorialized in support of this legislation and reiterate our support for it.

“Drug criminalization is an abject disaster,” Wiener told us. “It doesn’t work, it doesn’t stop people from using drugs.”

He’s right. All one needs to do is look back at the last half century since the War on Drugs began. It’s going the same way alcohol prohibition did a century ago.

Prohibition also stifles nonrecreational uses of illicit drugs. Military veteran Jesse Gould, founder of the Heroic Hearts Project, told our editorial board that many veterans he works with, including himself, have found therapeutic benefits from psychedelics.

In a free society, so long as others aren’t being harmed or victimized in the process, adults should be free to ingest what they wish without the threat of being arrested.

Pass SB 519.