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Psilocybin Could Open the Door to Legal Hallucinogens
Researchers are hoping the decriminalization vote in Denver could usher in a new era of therapeutic and recreational use
Earlier this month, the people of Denver narrowly voted to decriminalize magic mushrooms. Initiative 301 does not technically legalize the psilocybin-based hallucinogens but “deprioritizes” them, which means police won’t arrest or prosecute anyone found with them. The result is significant not because it will free up police time — only 90 people in Denver were arrested for possession of magic mushrooms between 2016 and 2018 — but for what it says about progressive attitudes toward therapeutic and recreational use of drugs.
In 2018, activists in Oakland secured a city council sponsor to try to decriminalize a range of psychedelics, including mushrooms, LSD, peyote, and ayahuasca. They came close to placing a resolution on the ballot, and plan to try again in 2020. In Iowa, Republican Representative Jeff Shipley has introduced a series of bills to decriminalize the use of psychedelics for medical uses, such as for the treatment of war veterans scarred by PTSD. And in Canada, a team of medical doctors, registered nurses, and licensed psychotherapists have applied to the national government for permission to use psilocybin for the “end-of-life distress” that accompanies terminal illness.
We’ve been here before with cannabis, which was legalized in Colorado and Washington in 2012 after years of battling for public acceptance, and is now legal in 11 U.S. states. Advocates hope that 2019 could prove to be the bellwether year not just for psilocybin, but for all psychedelics.
“This is an extraordinary development,” says Dr. Charles Grob, professor of psychiatry at the University of California Los Angeles, who has been investigating psilocybin for more than 15 years. “Never before in this country has a Schedule 1 psychedelic been decriminalized across the board in a particular geographical area.”
When I arrived in the U.K. from Canada in 2003, magic mushrooms were, in practice, legal. A ruling from the House of Lords in 1978 stated that fresh mushrooms were acceptable, though frozen or dried ones were not. The authorities consequently turned a…
