California voters could vote on psilocybin mushroom legalization in 2022

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Californians are ready for legal psilocybin mushrooms – and it sounds like they’re not waiting for lawmakers to allow them to have them. Marijuana Moment reports that a group called “Decriminalize California” has petitioned the California attorney general for a 2022 election that would make California the first state to legalize magic mushrooms.

The California Psilocybin Initiative takes a more permissive stance on the endogenous plant laws and resolutions passed in other parts of the US and some California cities.

In particular, it would approve all of “personal, medicinal, therapeutic, religious, spiritual, and dietetic uses of psilocybin mushrooms,” in contrast to the therapeutic legalization that Oregon residents voted for last November.

The proposed law would regulate psilocybin mushrooms in the same way that your average button or boletus is controlled. The only exception would be labeling regulations that include child safety and dosage information.

While legalizing mushrooms may sound like a pipe dream, politicians are actually in the process of weakening the laws surrounding banning psychedelics. In fact, the state Senate passed bill legalizing possession of psychedelic drugs – including MDMA, ibogaine, mescaline, and LSD; however, the law excludes ketamine, which was included in an earlier version of the bill – late June. This bill seems to be gaining momentum in the lower legislature. On Tuesday, a legislative committee in the California convention put the potential new proposal after it was amended with ownership restrictions that include 4 ounces of psilocybin mushrooms.

The bill also aims to correct the injustices of the war on drugs and promises to clear criminal records for Californians convicted for using psychedelic substances.

The voters’ initiative “Decriminalize California”, however, would create a legal system for the sale of psilocybin without changing the law on the prohibition of other drugs.

“If all goes well and society is not cut off from another round of the plague, hornet murder or alien invasion (my personal favorite), we should start collecting signatures from early September this year,” the group said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

That post also stated that the group would have 180 days to raise 623,212 to qualify for the California voting in 2022. When the time comes, it won’t be the first time the organization has made a game to achieve a similar move – a previous attempt to consider the 2020 ballot was made by the deleterious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted on the IRL’s signature-collecting campaigns.

Although both proposals focus on mushrooms on a statewide basis, several California cities have already taken steps to expand mushroom access. Oakland took a progressive stance as the city council passed a resolution decriminalizing entheogenic plants in 2019; Now the city is working to create a legal framework for the sale of psychedelics, although this has not yet been passed. Santa Cruz City Council also passed psychedelic decriminalization measures in 2020. Denver was the first city in the United States to pass a psilocybin decriminalization measure in 2019, sparking a nationwide movement to reconsider our legal relationship with the powerworks.