There is a very strong likelihood that voters in California could be the first to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and create a regulatory environment for it, similar to marijuana and alcohol. Early last week, the state attorney general’s office received paperwork requesting that the question of legal psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, reflect on the 2018 election ballot.
The proposal, submitted by Kevin Saunders, a veteran advocate for marijuana, would allow adults to use the hallucinogen legally within the State of California. According to the proposal, “This initiative exempts adults, 21-years and over, from criminal penalties and decriminalizes the adult use of psilocybin.” If voters approve it, magic mushrooms will be legal.
This would-be modification to the law also “exempts adults, 21-years and over, from California health and safety codes, which otherwise prohibit possession, sale, transport, and cultivation of psilocybin.” Not only will adults be able to use magic mushrooms, but they will also be able to produce it for a legal market, the same way authorities are regulating marijuana in California.
Saunders, who is currently running a mayoral campaign 100 miles south of San Francisco in a town called Marina, told the Sacramento Bee that there should be no persecution or criminal records for anyone using a drug gaining popularity in the mainstream. He said, “What I want to do is take the shackles off. I want to have an adult conversation. Not only are the soccer moms high now, but some of them are taking mushrooms.”
To the uninformed masses, this mission to legalize a mind-altering drug widely considered to be the most dangerous in the world may seem especially insane, particularly now when the country is just warming to the idea of legal marijuana. However, despite U.S. government opinion and propaganda, Saunders actually has an extremely legitimate view.
Research has already uncovered sufficient evidence proving psilocybin safer than other drugs, such as alcohol. Several clinical trials currently are currently underway that could result eventually in approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is an accomplishment that not even marijuana has managed to achieve yet.
Evidence also exists showing the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating severe addiction and anxiety disorders. Researchers in Germany concluded recently that, “these mushroom drugs may soon also be in use as pharmaceuticals that treat the existential anxiety of advanced-stage cancer patients, depression, and nicotine daily,” as reported by Science Daily.
Interestingly, the issue of decriminalizing magic mushrooms, and eliminating penalties associated with possession of it, has not attracted immediate advocacy by mainstream drug reform groups. Senior legal affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, Tamar Todd, recently told reporters that the organization does not yet have any opinion on the psilocybin initiative in California.
However, Todd did say that although the organization “agrees that no one should be arrested or incarcerated simply because they possess or use psilocybin or other drugs, there are many factors to consider when deciding whether to run or support a ballot measure in California.” Nevertheless, momentum continues to build for legalized magic mushrooms.
For now, the Drug Policy Alliance is focusing exclusively on “the safe and just rollout of marijuana regulation and our work to reduce the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses or deported for entering drug treatment post-arrest, and to reduce the number of people who die of drug overdose in California,” according to Todd’s statement.
It appears most people will support the initiative. A recent survey by YouGov found that 63 percent of people support the use of magic mushrooms for psychedelic therapies. However, the battle to legalize magic mushrooms in California will be an uphill one. Campaign organizers still need to collect at least 356,880 valid signatures to get the initiative onto the 2018 ballot.
As has been the case with campaigns to legalize weed across the United States, qualifying ballot measures is both a time-consuming and expensive process. Likewise, it is unlikely that the initiative will get very far without significant help and funding from influential organizations, such as the Drug Policy Alliance. However, marijuana was in a similar situation not too long ago.
Now, more than half of all states in the United States permit the possession, transport, cultivation and sale of cannabis for medical reasons, with an increasing number legalizing recreational use too. Although this initiative of Saunders to legalize magic mushrooms may come a little too soon, there is no doubt that eventually psilocybin will also get the legal consideration that it very much deserves.
