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From: bliss@mouse-potato.com

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1095 -- 4/30/20
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1095

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. WITH PSYCHEDELIC LEGALIZATION ON THE HORIZON, HOW SHOULD WE GET THERE
FROM HERE? [FEATURE]
Checking in with last weekend's virtual Psychedelic Liberty Summit. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/30/psychedelic_legalization_horizon

2. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
There's a push on to allow state-legal marijuana businesses to get
pandemic aid relief, Arkansans are heading across the state line for
cheaper, more accessible medical marijuana, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/29/medical_marijuana_update

3. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
Even during the pandemic, corrupt cops keep going down. A former Ohio
DARE officer is in big trouble and so is yet another Baltimore police
officer. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/29/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

4. PUSH TO ALLOW MARIJUANA BUSINESSES PANDEMIC AID, BLOODY GUN BATTLES
IN MEXICO, MORE... (4/23/20)
A push is on in Congress to secure coronavirus pandemic relief aid for
the legal marijuana industry, a poll suggests that a DC psychedelic decriminalization initiative could win -- if it can make the ballot --
and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/23/push_allow_marijuana_businesses

5. PLAINTIFFS IN MJ SCHEDULING CASE VS. DEA LOOK TO SUPREME COURT, NJ
VOTERS READY TO APPROVE LEGAL MJ, MORE... (4/24/20)
A New Jersey poll shows strong support for approving a November
marijuana legalization initiative, California state government agencies
are moving to ease the pandemic burden on marijuana businesses, the
Supreme Court is being asked to rule on whether marijuana's designation
as a Schedule I drug is unconstitutional, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/24/plaintiffs_mj_scheduling_case_vs

6. PERU COCA PRICES PLUNGE AMID PANDEMIC, LOUISIANA POT POLL SHOWS STATE
NOT THERE YET, MORE... (4/27/20)
A Navy destoryer on an anti-drug mission is forced to return to port,
Peruvian coca growers are taking a financial hit during the pandemic,
Montana GOP elected officials are opposing an effort to get electronic signature-gathering for a marijuana legalization campaign, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/27/peru_coca_prices_plunge_amid

7. US VIRGIN ISLANDS GOVERNOR URGES PASSAGE OF LEGALIZATION BILL, CALL
FOR PANDEMIC RELIEF FOR MARIJUANA BUSINESSES, MORE... (4/28/20)
The clamor grows for including state-legal marijuana businesses in
coronavirus pandemic in federal economic relief packages, Arkansas
medical marijuana patients are heading to Oklahoma for cheaper prices
and easier access, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/28/us_virgin_islands_governor_urges

8. CORONAVIRUS DOESN'T HALT COLOMBIA COCA OFFENSIVE, MT COURT HEARS
PLEAS FOR ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE-GATHERING, MORE... (4/29/20)
Whether Montana marijuana legalization campaigns can use electronic signature-gathering is now in the hands of a state judge, an Indiana
judge orders the return of a Land Rover whose case changed federal asset forfeiture law, Colombia's campaign against coca continues despite the pandemic, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2020/apr/29/coronavirus_doesnt_halt_colombia

(Not subscribed? Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up today!)

With Psychedelic Legalization on the Horizon, How Should We Get There
from Here? [FEATURE]

by psmith, April 30, 2020, 12:48pm, (Issue #1095)
Posted in:

2020 Business Decriminalization Decriminalization Marijuana --
Personal Use Marijuana Legalization Medical Marijuana News Feature
Psilocybin / Magic Mushrooms Psychedelics

At this point, it's almost a commonplace to say that a psychedelic
renaissance is underway. Microdosing has been a thing for years now,
scientists around the world are reporting exciting spiritual and
therapeutic research results, and venture capitalists are beginning to
edge their way into what they hope is the next lucrative drug commodity
market.

magic mushrooms (Creative Commons)
But also bubbling up is a social and political movement to free
psychedelics (and their users) from the fetters of drug prohibition.
Beginning with Denver, a handful of cities across the country have
passed what are in effect municipal decriminalization ordinances, with
the Decriminalize Nature campaign promoting similar efforts in dozens more.

This year, Oregon and the District of Columbia have psychedelic reform initiatives still in the signature-gathering phase. While hobbled by the
impact of the coronavirus pandemic, both could still make the ballot
this year. (A similar campaign in California recently bit the dust,
citing said pandemic.)

The late April Psychedelic Liberty Summit sponsored by the Chacruna
Institute for Plant Medicines, was yet another manifestation of the
rising interest in psychedelics. "We provide public education and
cultural understanding about psychedelic plant medicines and promote a
bridge between the ceremonial use of sacred plants and psychedelic
science," the institute says in its mission statement. It envisions "a
world where plant medicines and other psychedelics are preserved,
protected, and valued as part of our cultural identity and integrated
into our social, legal and health care systems."

Originally set for San Francisco, the two-day series of wide-ranging
panels and presentations instead went virtual in the face of pandemic
social distancing requirements. "Attendees" viewed remotely as panelists covered topics ranging from "Sacred Peyote Conservation" to "Psychedelic Medicalization: Unpacking the Landscape of Drug Development and Commercialization" to " How Can We Ensure Respectful, Safe, Ethical,
Inclusive and Sustainable Sourcing for Psychedelic Plants and
Materials?" and beyond.

Numerous panels were devoted to advancing the cause of ending
psychedelic prohibition, and weighing heavily on those involved were
questions about just how to proceed. Should reform initiatives target a
single psychedelic, as the Oregon therapeutic psilocybin initiative
does, should they target all psychedelics or only natural ones (sorry
LSD and MDMA), or should the target be broader drug decriminalization?

Similarly, what role should private investment capital play? Are there
lessons to be learned from the commodification of cannabis under
state-level legalization? And just how should legal or decriminalized psychedelics be made available to the public? Attempts to answer these questions were a central theme of the summit, and what was clear was
that although reform thinkers share a common general goal, there's a
breadth of opinion about the details.

For Dale Gieringer, long-time head of California NORML and one of the
authors of the groundbreaking 1996 Prop 215 campaign that legalized
medical marijuana in the state with bare-bones language, psychedelics
are a different ball game.

"I don't think marijuana and psychedelics should be legalized on the
same model," said Gieringer. "Marijuana is pretty safe even for novices,
but psychedelics need to be treated with more respect. This is not
something that should just be sold over the counter to adults from the
very get go; first time users should be informed of certain cautions,
and we need a new paradigm for distributing psychedelics, maybe
something more like drug user clubs, with nonprofit organizations -- not commercial operations -- in charge of manufacturing, distributing, and educating users on the use of psychedelic drugs, as well as being
responsible for any harmful effects of the drugs."

Gieringer pointed back to Prop 215 and the reefer revolution it
unleashed as he urged initiative campaigns to keep it simple.

"I advise the movement to be cautious about overprescribing elaborate regulatory regimes. We didn't do that with marijuana; we just had a set
of principles that people shouldn't be arrested for using or cultivating
for personal use. We did that deliberately; we knew it was going to be
very complicated in a federal system and we left it to government to
fill in the details," he said.

"Prop 215 was a very short initiative," Gieringer reminded. "The Oregon initiative has 71 pages and you still can't have psilocybin mushrooms in
your house or use them outside one of these organizations that gets set
up under the initiative."

That's the wrong approach, he suggested: "We should go back to a broad initiative that embraces the notion that people should be able to use psychedelics for spiritual, medical, and personal illumination in
general, and leave it to the state and federal government to fill in the details."

And not just do it one hallucinogen at a time.

"We ought to approach this more broadly and not just do one drug at a
time," he argued. "If we do psilocybin, what about peyote? What about ayahuasca? What about everything else? I favor a broader approach making psychedelics available to people want them on a private use basis. Let's
think globally and act locally and wait for our eggs to hatch here.
Let's go for simple initiatives that give people direct access to psychedelics."

Any such movement for psychedelic legalization or decriminalization --
as opposed to broader drug legalization or decriminalization -- will
need to be self-generating and self-supporting, argued Sean McAllister,
a Denver-based attorney who was chairman of the board for Sensible
Colorado when that group led the nation's first successful marijuana legalization initiative in 2012 and a consultant for Decriminalize
Denver, the group behind the city's 2019 psilocybin initiative.

"Unlike cannabis, psilocybin has only been used by an estimated two to
five percent of the population, and only one tenth of one percent are
current psychedelic users," he noted. "That's a much smaller pool, and
any drug reform initiative requires the support of those who do not use.
We're asking the majority to protect our rights, so we have to convince
the majority our movement makes sense and won't endanger the public
safety or health."

By including reporting requirements for psilocybin-related law
enforcement encounters and other public safety and public health impacts
via the mayor's psilocybin review panel, on which McAllister sits, the
Denver initiative was helping lay the educational groundwork for doing
that convincing, he argued.

"We'll write a report at the end of the year assessing the impacts of
the initiative, but really nothing has changed," McAllister reported.
"Law enforcement was concerned people would be dealing psilocybin on the streets and getting high on the streets, but our community is pretty self-regulating. There's been no explosion or public health or public
safety problems. We hope that our report will be of great value to other
cities looking to decriminalize psilocybin and to the movement as we
attempt to change laws across the country."

But that movement won't be able to count on the largesse of traditional
drug reform funders, McAllister warned, noting that statewide initiative campaigns cost millions of dollars.

"There is just not that much interest in psychedelics only," he said.
"The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) believes in legalizing all drugs; it
doesn't believe in drug exceptionalism. The Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is primarily focused on MDMA
and PTSD. We don't have tens or hundreds of thousands of people in
prison, so we don't have the same social justice issues around
psychedelics. The ACLU isn't going to lead our movement. We have to step
up and build our own organizations and come together as a movement."

"There are a lot of benefits to decriminalizing psychedelics that we
need to study further, and it's fascinating to see all these movements
for decriminalization popping up around the country, but at the same
time I'm ambivalent about it because there's also simultaneously a
movement to just decriminalize all drugs," said Jag Davies, who has long
stints as a communications specialist for the DPA and MAPS under his belt.

"And I don't think drug decriminalization is as big a deal and as
revolutionary as it's made out to be," Davies continued. "Right now, we
have a national poll showing 55 percent support for decriminalizing all
drugs."

Even though the argument that "marijuana is safer" was used to great
benefit in the Colorado marijuana legalization campaign, Davies warned
of its hazards.

"One of the mistakes made with marijuana reform messaging is framing it
as a safe or safer drug," he argued. "All drugs are the same in that criminalization isn't an effective policy and is counterproductive to
public health, but at the same time there will be some difference in how
we think about policies. We need to think about who is benefitting and
who is left behind. The benefits of decriminalizing more dangerous drugs
are much greater," he added, pointing out that the other Oregon
initiative would do just that.

In any case, psychedelic warriors should be part of a greater effort,
Davies said.

"Drug decriminalization is perhaps a more effective strategy to reduce
the harm in the long term," he said. "Even if you're a psychedelic exceptionalist, it's beneficial to join forces with the broader drug
reform movement and the criminal justice movements and get the buy-in
from those communities before you make your move."

David Bronner, the Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner's
natural soaps, straddles both worlds. He has long supported broad drug
reform efforts and this year is putting a million dollars into the
Oregon therapeutic psilocybin initiative.

"Having a well-structured therapeutic model makes it accessible to the
average person who is not familiar with psychedelics," Bronner said.
"The Oregon model is very much about accessing therapy and likewise
making sure there is only minimal taxation -- enough to cover the cost
of the program -- but keeping it limited in size and scope, so you can
make a good livelihood but not have a hundred chain clinics."

"These are preventative measures so we don't see what happened with
cannabis and with there being some kind of controls," he added. "The
polling says people aren't familiar with mushrooms and want to see
strict controls on access, that it can't be accessed outside the
therapeutic model."


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