<\/blockquote>\nPMHA has emphasized the importance of working with indigenous groups to craft the proposal. And that outreach led them to exclude peyote and DMT derived from toads from the measure, as there are sustainability concerns.<\/p>\n
The draft resolution would affirm peoples\u2019 \u201cright to cultivate, prepare, possess, or administer entheogenic substances, especially for community healing or a good faith religious or spiritual practice,\u201d according to an overview.<\/p>\n
The measure<\/a> also says that entheogenic plants and fungi \u201care non-addictive and have been recognized as sacred to human cultures around the world for thousands of years, and continue to be revered and utilized to this day by venerable and sincere religious and spiritual leaders and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
It further points out that a growing body of scientific literature indicates that psychedelics have therapeutic value in the treatment of certain mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n
While Oregon has decriminalized drug possession and legalized psilocybin therapy, the laws \u201cdo not allow for home cultivation of entheogens, or for preparing quantities suitable for community healing and religious purposes, which the most economically marginalized, who may not be able to afford therapy otherwise, can benefit from,\u201d PMHA said.<\/p>\n
The resolution says that Portland \u201cshall expend no funds or other resources to investigate, arrest, or prosecute individuals solely for engaging in these practices.\u201d It also calls on the state legislature \u201cto support this resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPMHA centers its recommendations and efforts in equity\u2014health equity\u2014in that it both facilitates and protects access to healing plants and fungi known to be therapeutically beneficial, but protects the people who work with these plant medicines\u2014those who conserve, grow, harvest, prepare or process and administer these plant medicines-for the benefit of their communities,\u201d Dr. Rachel Knox, a board member of the Portland group who also chairs the Equity Subcommittee of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy de-prioritizing, it also begins to pave way for the restitution owed to indigenous communities by whom these entheogens are considered sacred, including the opportunity to elevate our wisdom keepers as leaders and respected stewards in this space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time that local psychedelics reform has been pursued in Portland. Another group, Decriminalize Nature Portland, said last year that it would also be pushing lawmakers to enact a more limited policy change<\/a>. Activists initially started collecting signatures for a ballot initiative in 2019<\/a>, but they redirected efforts to target the City Commission. The plan did not come to fruition, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistory has proven that punitive drug policies are counterproductive, and have only contributed to overdoses, homelessness, and the ongoing mental health crisis,\u201d Mason Marks, the director of Harvard Law School\u2019s Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation<\/a> who also serves on Oregon\u2019s official state advisory board for the psilocybin therapy program<\/a>, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time for an evidence-based alternative, and complementing Oregon\u2019s existing measures, that\u2019s what the resolution of the Plant Medicine Healing Alliance provides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Portland is far from the only jurisdiction that\u2019s exploring psychedelics reform in the U.S.<\/p>\n
For example, nearly one year after the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council voted to decriminalize a wide-range of psychedelics<\/a>, lawmakers on Monday approved a resolution to officially designate September as Entheogenic Plants and Fungi Awareness Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Psychedelics reform is also currently advancing<\/a> in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Easthampton, Massachusetts and Arcata, California.<\/p>\n
Other Massachusetts cities that have enacted the policy change are: Northampton<\/a>, Somerville<\/a> and Cambridge<\/a>. And earlier this month, state lawmakers also heard testimony about a bill<\/a> to create a task force charged with studying the implications of legalizing psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In California, Oakland<\/a> and Santa Cruz<\/a> have already enacted psychedelics decriminalization.<\/p>\n
Voters in Washington, D.C. approved a ballot measure to decriminalize psychedelics in the nation\u2019s capital<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n
For the most part, the burgeoning psychedelics movement has been limited to decriminalization\u2014with the exception of Oregon\u2019s therapeutic psilocybin legalization vote. California activists are also pushing to place psilocybin legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a> as a lawmaker works to pass a separate bill to legalize possession of a wide range of psychedelics<\/a> that has already passed the state Senate and two Assembly committees.<\/p>\n
All of these latest developments are some of the latest iterations of a national psychedelics reform movement that\u2019s spread since Denver became the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n
The Aspen, Colorado City Council discussed the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a> like psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances at a meeting in May. But members said, as it stands, enacting a reform would be more better handled at the state level while entheogens remain strictly federally controlled.<\/p>\n
Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic, imploring the group to investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a> like ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction.<\/p>\n
But in a setback for advocates, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted against a proposal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that would have removed a spending bill rider<\/a> that advocates say has restricted federal funds for research into Schedule I drugs, including psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine. However, it picked up considerably more votes this round than when the congresswoman first introduced it<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n
Report provisions of separate, House-passed spending legislation also touch on the need to expand cannabis and psychedelics research<\/a>. The panel urged the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support expanded marijuana studies, for example<\/p>\n
It further says that federal health agencies should pursue research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a> for military veterans suffering from a host of mental health conditions.<\/p>\n
When it comes to broader drug policy reform, Oregon voters also approved an initiative in November to decriminalize possession of all drugs<\/a>. This year, the Maine House of Representatives passed a drug decriminalization bill<\/a>, but it later died in the Senate<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In May, lawmakers in Congress filed the first-ever legislation to federally decriminalize possession<\/a> of illicit substances.<\/p>\n
\nSha\u2019Carri Richardson Says She\u2019d Be \u2018Blessed\u2019 If Her Marijuana Suspension Led To End Of The Ban For Other Athletes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Image courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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