House Rejects AOC Amendment To Promote Research Into Psychedelics’ Medical Benefits

Massachusetts lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday about a bill to create a task force to investigate the effects of legalizing psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca.

The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee met to discuss Rep. Mike Connolly (D) legislation. Although members did not vote on the proposal, the sponsor was able to advocate reform and note emerging research suggesting that entheogenic substances have significant therapeutic potential for certain mental illnesses.

He also referred to the local reform movement that has so far led three Massachusetts cities to decriminalize psychedelics, saying it was “another reason why bringing stakeholders together and talking about them like that should be a priority for all of us Politics should look like. ”

“We hear from the medical community, we hear from clinicians and researchers, that the potential benefits here simply cannot be ignored,” Connolly said. “There are these problems like PTSD and depression, anxiety and addiction that we struggle with, and research tells us that these substances are tremendously beneficial.”

The 21-person task force proposed by the legislature is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of “legalizing the possession, consumption, transport and distribution of naturally grown entheogenic plants and mushrooms”.

The sponsor said Tuesday that the group “could really enable Massachusetts to play a leading role in developing guidelines around these substances.”

In an email to Marijuana Moment, Connolly said the momentum for broader psychedelic and drug policy reform in states across the country shows that “our proposal to create a task force to develop guidelines on legalization is rational and is justified “.

“Given our status as a long-time pioneer in civil rights, liberty, academic research and advances in medicine,” he said, “it is important for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to proactively develop guidelines to ensure this is a movement for people Psychedelics legalization continues – and as clinical trials demonstrating the therapeutic value of these drugs continue to pile up – we are moving forward in just, equitable, and inclusive ways. “

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Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan also testified in front of the reform proposal committee on Tuesday.

The nascent psychedelic reform movement has been largely limited to decriminalization, with the exception of Oregon, where voters in last year’s election decided to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use. California activists are also pushing for psilocybin legalization on the state’s 2022 ballot as a legislature works to pass a separate bill legalizing the possession of a wide range of psychedelics that already passes the Senate and two assembly committees Has.

While Massachusetts legislation would just set up a task force to investigate the possible legalization of these substances, it marks another significant development that shows how local reforms have caught the attention of state lawmakers.

Connolly said at the hearing on Tuesday that it was important to remember “it was the Nixon administration in the 1970s that classified entheogens as List I substances with no real scientific basis. It had more to do with politics – it had more to do with systemic racism – that led to this classification and this criminalization. “

“When you hear some of the professionals, some of the researchers talk about it today, they really feel like we have lost several decades of potential therapeutic benefit because of these arbitrary political choices,” he said. “With this task force, we in Massachusetts really have an opportunity to bring policymakers and stakeholders together to ensure that as research progresses, we are ready with appropriate guidelines. So don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. “.”

Legislators said that “the war on drugs, racial injustice and years of oppression here in our country” have partially motivated the introduction of its legislation.

The task force would “bring together stakeholders from academia, public safety, racial justice, harm reduction, indigenous peoples, social work, relevant regulators and medical communities to make recommendations on the legalization and possession, use and distribution of entheogenic substances.” he said.

Three Massachusetts cities – Northampton, Somerville and Cambridge – each have passed resolutions to make enforcement of laws against the possession, use and distribution of a wide range of psychedelics and other drugs less of a priority.

“I am proud to represent Somerville and Cambridge, two communities that have decriminalized the possession of psychedelics and entheogenic schemes in recent months, largely as part of the larger movement that continues to work to reverse the racist effects of the war on drugs make. Connolly said marijuana moment.

Should its bill pass, the 21-person task force would have until June 2022 to study the effects of plant and mushroom-based psychedelic substances and develop recommendations for legalizing the substances “in a manner that is fair and accessible sustainable production of “maximizes these plants.”

Particular attention would be paid under the bill to the effects of the drug ban on marginalized groups, “including indigenous peoples, veterans, people with physical and mental disabilities, black people, people of Latin and Hispanic origins, people of Asian descent, people”. Color, people in poverty and people who identify with the LGBTQ community. “

The measure also requires the Task Force to develop recommendations on “pardon, probation, diversion, suspension and justice measures” for those with a criminal record for possessing or distributing controlled substances.

The developments in Massachusetts are some of the latest developments in a national psychedelic reform movement that has spread since Denver was the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms in 2019.

In addition to the Massachusetts cities, four others – Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, and Washington, DC – have decriminalized possession of plant and mushroom-based psychedelic substances.

A councilor from Arcata, California, announced earlier this month that it would support a move to decriminalize psychedelics. This measure has since been referred to a committee.

The Connecticut governor recently signed law requiring the state to conduct a study into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms.

Texas also recently passed bill requiring the state to study the medical benefits of psychedelics for military veterans.

A New York lawmaker tabled a bill last month that would oblige the state to set up an institute to conduct similar research into the medical value of psychedelics.

In Oakland, the first city where a city council voted to make the criminalization of entheogenic substances largely a priority, lawmakers passed a follow-up resolution in December calling for the policy change to be passed nationwide and for local jurisdictions to allow healing ceremonies to allow where people might use psychedelics.

After Ann Arbor legislators passed a decriminalization resolution last year, a district attorney recently announced that his office would not bring charges of possession of entheogenic plants and mushrooms “regardless of the amount in dispute.”

Aspen, Colorado city council met in May to discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances. However, members said that passing a reform would be better handled at the federal level, while entheogens would be tightly controlled by the federal government.

Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic calling on the group to investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction.

The psychedelics discussion is also finding favor at the federal level.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be voting this week on a proposal by MPs Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that removes an expense account tab advocating federal funding for research into List I drugs, including psychedelics like psilocybin, is restricted . MDMA and Ibogaine.

In 2019, a large majority of the Democratic House members voted all but seven Republicans in a vote against an earlier version of the Congressman’s amendment. But given the surge in government and local reform efforts for psychedelics in the years that followed, it stands to reason that this time around this Congress should take the issue more seriously.

Federal health officials should explore the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for military veterans suffering from a variety of mental illnesses, said a report attached to separate spending legislation that is part of an advancing minibus package.

In November, Oregon voters also approved an initiative to decriminalize the possession of all drugs, in a bid for broader drug policy reform. That year the Maine House of Representatives passed a law decriminalizing drugs, but it later passed away in the Senate.

Last month, lawmakers tabled the first federal law decriminalizing the possession of illegal substances in Congress.

The White House has refused to blame marijuana sales for the rise in violent crime, despite comments from the DC Police Chief

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia / Mushroom Observer.

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