On Friday, advocates in California submitted a ballot initiative to state officials that would allow adults “to obtain and utilize psychedelics as medical, therapeutic and/or spiritual purposes,” with a doctor’s recommendation. The initiative would allow adults to use and possess the substances at home, as well as grow entheogenic plants or fungi.
The Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative 2024 is the third psychedelics related citizen-led initiative that has been cleared to collect signatures for the ballot initiative of next year. One would allow psilocybin to be used for therapeutic and adult purposes. A third would dedicate $5 billion towards the creation of a state agency that would focus on research and development psychedelic therapy.
In an interview conducted earlier this month, Dave Hodges, a campaign organizer and founder of the Church of Ambrosia in Oakland, admitted that the campaign for the latest proposal has filed its paperwork later than originally hoped. Advocates will not be able start collecting signatures until after the office of the attorney general issues an official title and summary for the proposal, which could take up to a month.
Hodges stated that the goal of this proposal was to provide a broad access to psychedelics, while maintaining a minimum level of safety.
Hodges explained that “we aren’t saying, ‘Everyone gets psychedelics’.” “We are saying that you should first talk to your doctor, and then if he recommends you try them you can get them.”
Gov. Gov.
Hodges stated that his church has grown to over 100,000 members. “If they could have talked to doctors before gaining access to psychedelics I would have thought that was a good thing.”
Comparing the current California law on cannabis businesses, commercial psychedelics would have a relatively lax oversight. According to the proposal, psychedelics will be “regulated as closely as possible with non-psychoactive agriculturally grown products.”
These are the changes proposed under the proposed Psychedelic Wellness and Healing initiative
- The simple use and possession at home of psychedelics would be legalized. This change would be applicable to all “hallucinogenic drugs” identified by California law. These include DMT, LSD mescaline psilocybin psilocyn MDMA.
- Adults can possess as much entheogenic substance for their own personal use in a year.
- The cultivation of psychedelic fungi and plants on private property would be legal, provided that it is done away from public view and only with the consent of its owner. The proposal also limits the ability of state and local authorities to prohibit cultivation by using nuisance laws or “impracticable regulations”.
- Starting January 1, 2025 any entheogenic company can begin to cultivate, manufacture, or distribute psychedelics wholesale, provided that it is operating on land zoned commercial agriculture and has been approved by the California Department of Food and Agriculture as a food production area.
- Starting April 19, 2025 any California-based business with a state seller permit, which is required for most retail businesses, can begin selling psychedelics to patients who are qualified or their designated caregivers.
- The proposal states that “nothing contained in this act shall prohibit any church, spiritual group, indigenous group or individual from using entheogenic substances or plants as a sacrament for their own religious or Spiritual practice.” No definitions are provided.
- If local voters approve, a municipal sales tax of up 10 percent can be imposed on psychedelic products used for medical or therapeutic purposes. Psychedelics used or grown for spiritual purposes would be exempt from any tax, whether it is a sales or use tax.
- The sale or use or endangered species or parts thereof will not be permitted “unless the producer is able to demonstrate that the species was produced in a sustainable manner and not harvested from the wild”, and it does not adversely affect the species’ natural habitat.
- Doctors could prescribe psychedelics to treat any “physical or psychological illness” that the substance can relieve. Specific conditions include: PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), depression, anxiety disorders, addictions, suicidality and spiritual development.
- No healthcare professional would be “punished or denied any rights or privileges for having recommended entheogenic substances or plants.”
- The Department of Public Health of the state could issue regulations to implement state frameworks, but “the rulemaking procedure shall not unreasonable delay implementation.”
- Businesses will be regulated as closely as possible to agriculturally produced non-psychoactive products, with the exception that warning labels in English or Spanish would be required for psychedelic packaging.
- The state must allow research on psychedelics. For example, healthcare professionals can use and administer psychedelics as well as recommend their use.
- Doctors can prescribe psychedelics for minors with consent from a parent, guardian or the primary physician of the minor.
- The Department of Consumer Affairs and the Health and Human Services Agency of the state would have to adopt and implement qualification requirements for psychedelic assisted therapy “created” by an independent professional certification body.
- Voters could approve a municipal ban or limit on the number of businesses that sell psychedelics, but not to prohibit the activities of individuals or groups.
- According to the new law, the “simple presence” (or mere existence) of psychedelics could not be used as a basis for determining the risk of harm that a child might suffer. Nor could it be used in order to reduce parental rights or to justify the removal of the child from their home.
- Minors who engage in psychedelic activities without parental consent could face penalties. However, “the maximum punishment for such an offense shall not exceed a mandatory education program on drugs, and no conviction will remain on the record of a juvenile.”
- Adults who give entheogens (or other drugs) to a minor that is not a patient are guilty of misdemeanors and can be fined up to $3,000 or $1,500 on the first offense.
- A court would have to recall or dismiss the sentence of a person serving a criminal sentence for conduct that would fall under a lesser crime under the initiative. No hearing would be required. Records of certain convictions can be sealed after a person has completed their sentence.
The draft language of the proposed initiative was significantly updated this week before organizers filed it with state officials. The document was revised because it was based off an earlier, more expansive legalization proposal. Other revisions came as a result of questions raised by Marijuana Moment about an earlier version that allowed parents to give psychedelics and peyote to their children. This cactus is an endangered species, and has been overharvested due to its growing popularity. The earlier version did not define clearly who could purchase psychedelics in retail stores.
Hodges, who is an organizer, said that they have been working for almost a year on this measure, but they increased the pace when Newsom vetoed SB 58, the legalization bill of the legislature.
He said that “the way Gavin vetoed the 58 and his reasoning for calling it was a real message to us” that we needed this.
Two more ballot proposals related to psychedelics have been submitted with the intention of qualifying them for ballot next year.
The group Decriminalize California is backing a measure that would legalize adult-use psilocybin. State officials recently gave the measure approval to start collecting signatures. The group’s activists have attempted to place the reform on the ballot twice in previous cycles but failed due to difficulties in gathering signatures during the pandemic.
The TREAT California Act, the other measure that could be implemented, would invest $5 billion in order to create a state agency devoted to advancing research and developing psychedelic therapy. The initiative would not alter the legal status of any substances, but would grant California a constitutional right to conduct all research on psychedelics except for peyote. In September, the attorney general’s office published a summary and title of the measure. Signature gathering started earlier this month.
Hodges stated that he does not oppose any of the other proposals but he believes his Psychedelic Well-Being and Healing Initiative will best ensure access to Californians.
He said that initially, organizers planned to present the proposal earlier to state officials in order to collect signatures over the Black Friday weekend. “Now we are looking at the Christmas madness. “That’s the next big chance.”
Hodges, along with other organizers, submitted the proposal on Friday to officials in California. The Attorney General’s Office will take public comment on the language until November 27. After that, an official title and summary of the ballot will be released. Hodges anticipates that advocates will begin collecting signatures in December. He said that to qualify for the ballot in 2024, the campaign must collect 546,651 valid California voter signatures by April 23, 2019.
He said that if we missed the April 23 deadline but still gathered enough signatures within the 180 day window allowed by the state, then we would end up on a ballot in 2026.
Hodges expressed confidence when asked about the high costs of gathering signatures in California. Hodges said that he expected members of the Church of Ambrosia, a nondenominational interfaith organization which supports the safe use of psychedelics and their access to them, to support the reform financially.
He said, “We know that we can do it.” We have 100,000 church members who want to make these things happen. “It’s only a question of giving them a place to
Meanwhile, some California municipalities are pursuing reforms at the local level. Last week, the city of Eureka adopted a resolution to HTML0 This is at least the fifth jurisdiction to adopt the new policy. San Francisco Oakland HTML
A number of municipalities have adopted the local approach to decriminalize noncommercial leaders adopted a similar resolution on psychedel
Since Denver voters passed a law decriminalizing the possession Salem, Somerville Cambridge Easthampton Northampton have all passed Four cities in Michigan adopted similar measures, including Ferndale HTML0
In 2020, Oregon will decriminalize possession of any drug This past May, the state approved its first legal ps
And in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a psychedelics regulation bill into law in May, setting rules for a psychedelics legalization law that voters passed last year.
Based on statistical modelling of policy trends, an analysis published last year in the American
A national poll conducted in March found that a majority of U.S.
Image courtesy of Workman.
The first time Marijuana moment published the
