Half a century after San Francisco gave birth to the counterculture hippie movement, a San Francisco senator would pass a bill that would decriminalize psychedelics throughout the state of California. When it reached Governor Newsom’s desk, it was vetoed.
Hippies advocated for a variety of progressive changes including a completely different perception of psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD, drugs that were looked upon as dangerous and addictive, and which were federally criminalized in 1971. Forty-eight years after being classified as a Schedule 1 drug, cities in the United States began decriminalizing psilocybin (magic mushrooms) starting with Denver, Colorado, soon followed by Oakland, California, and the city that started the biggest pro-psychedelic movement in the United States: San Francisco.
Oregon, Colorado, and the District of Columbia all decriminalized the use of certain psychedelics including psilocybin entirely and California appeared to be next. As politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tried passing bills decriminalizing psychedelics statewide, more and more cities continued to do so on their own. It was San Francisco county senator Scott Wiener who managed to get Senate Bill 58 passed by California’s state assembly, which decriminalized possession and use of not just psilocybin, but a variety of plant-based psychedelics like DMT as well.
Senator Scott Wiener pushed for the bill to be passed after research on psychedelics showed effectiveness in treating mental illnesses like PTSD and depression. In a statement after Bill 58 was passed out of the legislature, Wiener said, “Plant-based psychedelics are non-addictive and show tremendous promise at treating some of the most intractable drivers of our nation’s mental health crisis.”
The bill was supported by veteran groups pushing to ease restrictions on psychedelics after they were shown to be effective in treating mental illnesses like PTSD. At an assembly hearing in July, Joe McKay, a firefighter who responded to the 9/11 attacks, said “Psilocybin gave me my life back…No one should go to jail for using this medicine to try to heal.”
The FDA designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” for depression in 2019. The bill was also supported by restorative justice groups, wanting to leave the war on drugs in the past. Groups who opposed the bill included law enforcement organizations and parent organizations fearing the bill would make it easier for the drugs to get into the hands of young kids. The California Coalition for Psychedelic Safety and Education also opposed the bill, saying “Any move toward decriminalization will require appropriate public education campaigns, safety protocols, and emergency response procedures to help keep Californians safe.”
After being passed through by the state assembly, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill on October 7, 2023. In a statement explaining his decision, Newsom said, “California should immediately begin work to set up regulated treatment guidelines – replete with dosing information, therapeutic guidelines, rules to prevent against exploitation during guided treatments, and medical clearance of no underlying psychoses.”
Veteran groups were left disappointed at Newsom’s decision. Senator Weiner said, “This is a setback for the huge number of Californians — including combat veterans and first responders — who are safely using and benefiting from these non-addictive substances and who will now continue to be classified as criminals under California law.” The California Coalition for Psychedelic Safety and Education gave the statement, “We’re grateful that Governor Newsom listened to some of the top medical experts, psychedelic researchers, and psychiatrists in the country who all warned that legalization without guardrails was at best premature for both personal and therapeutic use.”
Although Newsom vetoed the bill, he did not condemn the use of psychedelics. In fact, he showed support for it. In the same statement explaining his veto, Newsom said, “Psychedelics have proven to relieve people suffering from certain conditions such as depression, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other addictive personality traits. This is an exciting frontier and California will be on the front end of leading it.”
Senator Scott Weiner of San Francisco has vowed to introduce more legislation to decriminalize psychedelics. California’s state assembly has, for the first time, shown clear support for the decriminalization of psychedelics and now California’s governor has given clear guidelines under which he would sign a decriminalization bill into law. The road to psychedelic decriminalization is now wide open in California.
Will we ever see a similar bill get passed fully into law? We most likely will, and possibly very soon. Advocates of decriminalization are pushing to place two initiatives on the November 2024 ballot. The first is an outright vote to legalize the use and sale of psilocybin mushrooms for people 21 and older. The second will ask voters to approve a $5 billion dollar state agency tasked with researching psychedelic therapies, a clear move towards meeting Governor Newsom’s guidelines. Decriminalization has never been closer, advocates are racing towards achieving it in any way possible, and opposition has faltered in California’s state assembly and governor’s cabinet.
