Wiener bill would OK psychedelic drug use
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers will consider next year whether to allow the use of psychedelic drugs that supporters argue have therapeutic benefits.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, DSan Francisco, said Tuesday that he plans to introduce a bill when the Legislature returns decriminalizing possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelics, part of his broader drug policy agenda that also includes measures to legalize safeinjection sites and end mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes.
“The war on drugs has been a disaster, in terms of bloating law enforcement, tearing apart communities, criminalizing addiction and spending enormous amounts of money on prisons,” Wiener said. “We need to end the war on drugs. Possession of drugs should just not be a crime.”
A movement to decriminalize, or even legalize, psychedelics has grown across the country in recent years as researchers have determined psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of socalled magic mushrooms, and other drugs could be used to treat depression and anxiety.
Oakland adopted a resolution last year decriminalizing certain natural psychedelics that come from plants and fungi, one of a handful of cities nationwide to take that step.
Supporters won a significant victory last week when Oregon voters passed a measure to permit supervised use of psilocybin in a therapeutic setting, becoming the first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms. Another measure passed by the state’s voters will decriminalize small amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and psychedelics, so that possession will carry only a $ 100 fine, also a first for the nation.
Residents in Washington, D. C., meanwhile, voted to decriminalize certain psychedelic plants and fungi, making it “among the Metropolitan Police Department’s lowest law enforcement priorities” to arrest people who use and sell those substances — though the City Council or Congress could still overturn the law.
Wiener said he was encouraged by those developments and is talking with experts about exactly what form his proposal should take. He said he was leaning toward Oregon’s supervised approach, but also allowing for the use of synthetic psychedelics such as LSD. He is working with Assembly members Evan Low, DCampbell, and Sydney Kamlager, DLos Angeles, on the bill.
Wiener, who said he does not take psychedelics himself, noted that cultures all over the world have been using them since the beginning of time.
“Any substance can be harmful, so I’m not suggesting that anything is like nirvana,” he said. “But we know that psychedelics can be used safely. We know they appear to have significant medicinal uses.”
Wiener has already said he plans to reintroduce legislation that would allow San Francisco and Oakland, which are struggling with surging opioid overdoses, to experiment with safeinjection sites where users would take drugs under supervision. He also wants to take another run at a bill to end mandatory jail and prison time for nonviolent drug offenses, after the Legislature failed to pass the measure this year.