Drugs: Californians Want Legal Psychedelics Will State Let Them

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Bill Moves Forward That Will Legalize Psychedelic Drugs In California

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/bill-moves-forward-that-will-legalize-psychedelic-drugs-like-dmt-ibogaine-in-the-entire-state-of-california/

Despite the overwhelming evidence showing that kidnapping and caging
people for possessing illegal substances does nothing to prevent use
and only leads to more crime and suffering, government is still hell
bent on enforcing the war on drugs. Like a crack addict who needs to
find his next fix, the state is unable to resist the temptation to
kick in doors, shake down brown people, and ruin lives to enforce the
drug war.

Instead of realizing the horrific nature of the enforcement of
prohibition, many cities across the country double down on the drug
war instead of admitting failure. As we can see from watching it
unfold, this only leads to more suffering and more crime. Luckily,
there are cities, and now entire states in other parts of the country
that are taking steps to stop this violent war and the implications
for such measures are only beneficial to all human kind.

Eight years ago, Colorado citizens—tired of the war on drugs and wise
to the near-limitless benefits of cannabis—made US history by voting
to legalize recreational marijuana. Then, in 2019, this state once
again placed themselves on the right side of history as they voted to
decriminalize magic mushrooms. But this was just the beginning and
their momentum is spreading—faster and stronger, toward
decriminalizing all plant-based psychedelics. Then, this year, the
state of Oregon decriminalized all drugs.

Now, another state is following suit, but not just with psilocybin— a
bill in California is moving forward with a legalization measure for
other psychedelics like mescaline cacti, ayahuasca and ibogaine.

The California Assembly committee is holding a hearing next month on
the bill to legalize the possession, personal use, and facilitated and
supported use of the following substances by adults 21 and over.

    psilocybin

    psilocyn

    MDMA

    LSD

    DMT

    mescaline (excluding peyote)

    ibogaine

Senate Bill 519 was proposed last year but was put on hold in August
to adjust the wording in order to ensure its passage. As the Tenth
Amendment Center points out:

    Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) passed in 1970, the
federal government maintains the complete prohibition of many of the
drugs on SB519’s decriminalization list and heavily regulates others.
Of course, the federal government lacks any constitutional authority
to ban or regulate such substances within the borders of a state,
despite the opinion of the politically connected lawyers on the
Supreme Court. If you doubt this, ask yourself why it took a
constitutional amendment to institute federal alcohol prohibition.

    In effect, the passage of SB519 would end criminal enforcement of
laws prohibiting the possession of these drugs in California. As we’ve
seen with marijuana and hemp, when states and localities stop
enforcing laws banning a substance, the federal government finds it
virtually impossible to maintain prohibition. For instance, FBI
statistics show that law enforcement makes approximately 99 of 100
marijuana arrests under state, not federal law. By curtailing or
ending state prohibition, states sweep part of the basis for 99
percent of marijuana arrests.

    Furthermore, figures indicate it would take 40 percent of the
DEA’s yearly annual budget just to investigate and raid all of the
dispensaries in Los Angeles – a single city in a single state. That
doesn’t include the cost of prosecution either. The lesson? The feds
lack the resources to enforce marijuana prohibition without state and
local assistance, and the same will likely hold true with other drugs.

“With mental health issues on the rise, it is time that California
take an incremental and measured step to dismantle failed war on drugs
policies by ending the criminalization of people that possess and use
substances with immense healing potential,” the bill’s sponsor Sen.
Scott Wiener said in a statement of the bill’s purpose.

“It’s the plants that are going to bring us back to sanity. We’ve got
to listen to their message and we’ve got to live reciprocally with
nature and restore the natural order,” Susana Eager Valadez, director
of the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts said
after Oakland passed a similar decriminalization bill in 2019.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee will hear the case for SB519 on
Aug. 3. It must pass the committee by a majority vote before moving to
the full Assembly for further consideration. Hopefully it does and
California shifts from kidnapping and caging people for these
substances, to focusing on using them for therapy.

While California is certainly no bastion for freedom — especially with
their draconian COVID-19 response — bills like this are a win for
everyone as it requires far less money to help people than it does to
incarcerate them.

Now, cops can try to focus on real crimes instead of kidnapping and
caging people who are trying to heal themselves with a plant.

Supporters hope the decision will begin a nationwide discussion about
decriminalizing plant-based drugs.