City lawmakers of San Francisco have introduced legislation that would significantly move forward the decriminalization of psychedelic substances.
The bill will hopefully reduce non-violent drug prosecution, and make it easier for health practitioners to utilize the powerful therapeutic benefits which substances like psilocybin, ketamine, and DMT have been proven to have.
It’s not a total legalization of use and possession, nor even a total decriminalization of use and possession. The exact text of the bill is as follows.
“City resources not be used for any investigation, detention, arrest, or prosecution” related to use of “Entheogenic Plants listed on the Federally Controlled Substances Schedule 1 list.”
Supervisors Dean Preston (District 5) and cosponsor Supervisor Hillary Ronen (District 9) introduced the resolution on July 26, but with the state senate in recesses until September 1st, they will have plenty of time to consider the benefits amid an epidemic of mental health problems in America.
“We’re not in a position to turn away old and new healing modalities that are effective,” Marjorie Sturm, an advocate for Decriminalize Nature San Francisco, told Filter. “We know the set and setting matters, so this threat of persecution and illegality is really overbearing.”
Much of the nation’s pioneering research on psychedelics goes on in San Francisco, through institutes like the Translational Psychedelic Research Program, and the California Institute of Integrative Studies.
Decriminalize Nature hopes that if the law were to pass, it would score a major victory for decriminalization all over the country. It includes a call on the state of California to decriminalize state-wide and join cities like Oakland (and potentially San Francisco) who have already passed such legislation.
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It also makes the rather noticeable if small change that the Speaker of the House, the third highest political office in the country, would come from a decriminalized district.
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