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California moves to decriminalize use of magic mushrooms and other natural psychedelics
(www.latimes.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023
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Sure hope there's going to be education available alongside the psychedelics for ~~sale~~ acquisition. It'll help people learn about set and setting, etc., but most importantly, education and prep will mean less bad trips and less idiots running their mouths to the anti-drug crowd.
So this isn't aimed at allowing the sale yet. This is just to remove the penalty of possession, this is the first step in being able to do studies on micro doses and therapeutic levels. And yes mushroom shops.
Technically the second step. First step was that the big CA cities already passed this. Now the rest of the state is following.
I bought magic mushrooms in Oakland this summer. Love my city.
Comically enough possession of psycodelic mushrooms isn't a charge in Florida. They had a ruling a while back that stated a standard person wouldn't know how to tell the difference between a mushroom that was and was not containing psycodelic properties. Thus it is illegal to sell, deliver or etc but if you have a zip loc bag of a few mushrooms in your pocket they in theory would have to let you go because they would have to prove your mushroom swiss burger was intended to get you high vs just being enjoyable. Now if you have 10 1 oz bags of mushrooms, you will have a hard time arguing you didn't have intent to sell.
As the article mentioned, recreational sales is still illegal. You’re just not going to jail if you’re over 21 and get caught with few caps on you. It also kicks off some efforts to study the drugs for therapy.
It’s also following in the footsteps of major CA metros who have been piloting this for a while.
If California is anything like Massachusetts then it's a bit more complicated.
Over there several towns and cities have decriminalized and it's on the state ballot much like California, but cannabis dispensaries in those towns and cities are already "gifting" mushroom chocolates and such to customers.
The law says they can't sell it yet but they still manage to get it into the hands of paying customers
Well it only makes sense when an upstanding adult donates to the shop that they receive a going home gift.
Explain
There are easy ways to have a bad time using psychedelics (like not picking a controlled environment, not being prepared for that your trip will take some time). Knowing these things ahead of time/being prepared matters quite a bit in terms of your ability to have a safe, pleasant trip.
This sort of knowledge, sort of like "you shouldn't plan to operate heavy machinery after drinking that cough syrup or those 7 beers" is key to responsible use- and it's the irresponsible users that become the poster children for the 'ban everything' crowd.
You haven't heard anti-drug people cite anecdotal stories as a reason to continue the war on drugs?
People who misuse or misunderstand a drug, take too much, or mix it with other substances are the D.A.R.E. crowd’s favorite thing to point as supporting evidence.
Example: Take a small dose of PCP or a simulant, it can be fine for someone knowing the risks and weighing them against their needs. Take too much of PCP (and be predisposed to violence) and you'll end up doing crimes, or in the hospital for serotonin syndrome.
So let's say violent Vince takes too much of a drug and ends up assaulting people on the street. He ends up in the news and we all get to hear forever about why PCP turns anyone who tries it into an invincible cannibal zombie.
Does that make more sense?
Note: I'm not arguing for the legality of PCP.