San Francisco heads of state are considering measures to decriminalize psychedelics

San Francisco city leaders will consider a proposed regulation to decriminalize the use of natural psychedelics, including psilocybin and ayahuasca, when the board of directors returns from recess next month. The measure, introduced on July 26 by San Francisco regulators Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen, would also encourage the state of California to reform its psychedelic drug policy.

If the ordinance is passed by the Board of Supervisors, the ordinance would require the San Francisco Police Department to begin enforcing laws prohibiting the possession, use, cultivation, and transfer of entheogenic plants and mushrooms, including psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca. and its active adult components “among the lowest priorities for the City and County of San Francisco,” the proposal text reads.

The ordinance also requires that city resources not be used for “investigations, detentions, arrests, or prosecutions arising out of alleged violations of state and federal statutes regarding the use of entheogenic plants listed on Schedule 1 of the Federally Controlled Substances are listed”.

Preston has criticized the SFPD’s recent increased enforcement of laws criminalizing drug use. But he noted that decriminalizing natural psychedelics is another matter.

“We’re not talking about drugs here. In relation to this particular category, I would hope that even people who disagree on the best approaches to dealing with opioids and other prevalent drugs in San Francisco would agree with the deprioritization of entheogenic plant enforcement,” Preston said, adding adding that research has shown that psychedelics have the potential to treat several serious mental health problems, including substance abuse.

The Evolution of Psychedelics Policy

Preston noted that the measure would align San Francisco politics with the movement to see psychedelics in a new light after decades of stigma and criminalization.

“The law hasn’t evolved at all since then, and these substances are being treated the way they have always been,” Preston said. “At the same time, the scientific community has expanded its studies and research into its therapeutic use.”

Michael Pollan, co-founder of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and creator of a recent Netflix documentary series on the drugs, said entheogenic plants can be used therapeutically but cautioned against using them with caution.

“These substances have tremendous potential, but they’re not for everyone and they pose serious risks if used improperly,” Pollan said at a recent press conference. “The shift from destroying young minds in the 1960s to effective medicine in the 2020s is as sudden as it is confusing for many people. So we want to address that confusion and that curiosity with solid, credible information from a trusted source.”

“Not many people have done basic research trying to understand how psychedelics work and why they are effective in treating different mental disorders,” Pollan added. “We want to explore what psychedelics might teach us about things like cognition, predictive processing, belief change, and brain plasticity.”

If the Psychedelics Decriminalization Ordinance is approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city would be the largest municipality to enact such a measure. Denver was the first city in the nation to decriminalize psychedelics in 2019, and since that time others including Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Easthampton, Massachusetts have enacted similar ordinances. And two years ago, Oregon voters passed landmark legislation legalizing psilocybin for therapeutic purposes.

“One of the most notable things about the Oregon Experiment, which was voted on in 2020, is that it will make a guided psychedelic experience available to anyone over the age of 21, regardless of diagnosis,” Pollan said. “I think the use of psychedelics will not be limited to the medical system. It is not now and will not be in the future.”

dr Markus Roggen, the president and chief science officer of psychedelics and cannabis research and development firm Delic Labs, said he supports the intent of the San Francisco psychedelics proposal.

“I philosophically welcome decriminalization as criminalizing the possession/use of ‘drugs’ has brought many costs and pains to the country,” Roggen wrote in an email to High Times.

However, he added that in his opinion, decriminalization does not go far enough and that previous damage caused by the criminalization of psychedelics needs to be repaired. He also said that decriminalization should include regulation, citing the thriving illegal psychedelics industry in the Netherlands.

“Use is legal there, but production is illegal,” said Roggen. “The government handed this whole industry over to the cartels and the mafia.”

The San Francisco board of directors will take up the psychedelics decriminalization measure when it returns from the September hiatus.