San Francisco supes unanimously move to decriminalize psychedelics

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously handed a decision at its assembly Tuesday to decriminalize psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca.

Sponsored by Supervisors Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen, the measure calls on police to contemplate entheogenic vegetation as “amongst the bottom precedence” for penalties, and asks for metropolis prison justice sources to not be spent on people utilizing psychedelics. The decision additionally advocates for the decriminalization of entheogenic plant practices on a state and federal stage.

Town’s Police Division has not explicitly laid out coverage concerning entheogen use, leaving those that use them susceptible to arrest or persecution.

There is a rising motion throughout the U.S. to legalize some or all entheogens—issues like mescaline from some cacti, the basis bark of the iboga shrub and psilocybin from sure mushrooms—as some say they carry therapeutic and religious properties. The decision cites varied research that present the potential these substances have for these with psychological well being sicknesses and people in restoration of opioid and methamphetamine habit.

San Francisco is following Oakland, Santa Cruz, Denver and Seattle, amongst different jurisdictions which have initiated the decriminalization of those vegetation and fungi.

“San Francisco joins a rising listing of cities and nations which are taking a contemporary take a look at these plant-based medicines, following science and knowledge, and destigmatizing their use and cultivation. Immediately’s unanimous vote is an thrilling step ahead,” Preston mentioned in an announcement. 

The measure’s passage carefully follows state Sen. Scott Wiener’s failed invoice to legalize the possession and use of small doses of sure psychedelic medicine like MDMA, LSD and ketamine in California. The laws, Senate Invoice 519, was scaled again to a examine to be produced in a yr. Wiener mentioned he plans to reintroduce the invoice in 2023.

“Psychedelic medicine, which aren’t addictive, have unimaginable promise relating to psychological well being and habit remedy. We’re not giving up,” Wiener mentioned in an announcement after the decriminalization facet of his invoice was eliminated in August. 

Metropolis officers have not too long ago pushed for extra drug coverage reform—additionally on Tuesday, supervisors launched an formidable plan to sort out the town’s rise in deadly overdoses, which notes using protected consumption websites. In response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of legalizing a protected consumption pilot program in main California cities, Mayor London Breed and others mentioned they’d cost ahead with hurt discount providers in any case. 

And traditionally, San Francisco was a number one pressure in legalizing one other substance throughout the nation, hashish. 

Decriminalize Nature, an advocacy group looking for an finish to the warfare on entheogenic vegetation, mentioned there’s an “unmet want” for folks with habit, nervousness, PTSD and different psychological well being problems to make use of these vegetation for medicinal functions. The group has been a powerful proponent in decriminalization coverage in San Francisco since 2018.