Eighth city in Massachusetts adopted a policy that prioritizes arrests for psychedelic fungi and plants. The policy also urges county prosecutors not to pursue cases of possession, distribution or cultivation of these substances.
The City Council of Medford adopted a resolution on Tuesday evening stating that the investigation and arrest of adult offenders for “planting and cultivating entheogenic plants or fungi, transporting and distributing them, engaging in practices involving these plants and fungi, and/or possesing such plants and fungi” shall be officially the lowest priority of law enforcement for Medford.
It also states that all Medford employees should not use town resources to enforce laws criminalizing the possession of personal controlled substances.
The bill also “calls on the Middlesex County district attorney to cease prosecutions” for non-commercial activities around entheogens.
The resolution, which appeared on the agenda of Tuesday’s council meeting, states that “the so-called War on Drugs” has resulted in the unnecessarily penalizing, arresting, and imprisoning of vulnerable people.
The measure was sponsored by Matt Leming, (D), and Anna Callahan, (D), City Councilors. It is entitled “A Resolution to Support Adult Access and Education of Plant Medicine.”
Our volunteers and Council partners helped Medford become the eighth Massachusetts city that has ended arrests for growing + distributing plant medicine
Let’s fix the flawed ballot question, so life-saving treatments with these medicines are affordable pic.twitter.com/3JC6VpQ01z
Bay Staters for Natural Medicine February 7, 2024
The resolution not only declares local priorities but also addresses possible reforms at the state level. The Medford City Council endorses a bill introduced last year which would decriminalize small quantities of psilocybin, psilocin, ibogaine, DMT, and mescaline.
Bay Staters for Natural Medicine (a group that is behind several local decriminalization initiatives in Massachusetts) also contributed to the draft of state-level legislation.
The resolution also expresses its support for amending the proposed question on the ballot that would legalize psychedelics for the state. It calls for the legislature to substitute “language which legalizes plant medicines services in a straight-forward manner without an unelected commission susceptible to regulatory capture.”
The measure, if adopted, would create a framework that allows for the lawful and supervised use of psychedelics in licensed facilities.
The legislature has three options: enacting the reform or proposing a replacement. It can also choose to do nothing. If lawmakers do not legalize psychedelics before May 1, activists will have until July 3, 2019 to submit at minimum 12,429 valid signatures in order to place the proposal on the ballot for November 2024.
Medford has joined a number other Massachusetts cities that have adopted such decriminalization measures. These include Provincetown which passed one late last year as well as Salem Somerville Cambridge Easthampton Northampton Amherst.
Separately, Gov. Maura Shealy (D), last month, drew the attention of lawmakers to testimony surrounding a bill she introduced to create a psychedelics working group that would investigate the therapeutic potentials of substances like psilocybin.
A Republican legislator submitted three psychedelic reform bills in the legislature last year. These included proposals to legalize substances such as psilocybin, and reschedule MDMA while waiting for federal approval, along with a price limit on therapeutic access.
Other legislators have introduced several pieces of legislation in Massachusetts to legalize entheogenic drugs for adults, as well as separate measures.
A second bill would allow the Department of Public Health (DPH) to conduct an extensive study on the therapeutic potential of synthetic psychedelics such as MDMA.
Rep. Mike Connolly, (D), also filed a 2021 bill that was heard by the Joint Judiciary Committee in . The hearing focused on the implications of legalizing substances such as psilocybin or ayahuasca.
Read full Medford City Council Resolution below.
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Photo elements are courtesy of carlosemmaskype, and Apollo.
The post Eighth Massachusetts City Adopts Psychoedelics Decriminalization Policy, Also Pushing For Changes To A Pending State Ballot Initiative first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
