A bill that would decriminalize possession of several psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin “magic” mushrooms was saved from being held in suspense this session by being approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee 5-2 on Thursday.
Senate Bill 519, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would “decriminalize” dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine (psychedelic substance), ketamine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), mescaline (psychedelic hallucinogen), psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy, molly) possession for personal use and social sharing.
SB 519 would also set strict limits on possession of the listed psychedelics, penalizing those who are under the age of 21 for using drugs, as well as possessing the drugs on school property. Possession of drug paraphernalia associated with psychedelics will no longer carry criminal penalties as long as they are owned by adults. Those with prior criminal offenses for possession and use would have also have their records expunged under the bill, with the California Department of Public Health to come up with regulations and therapeutic uses of the legalized psychedelics by 2024.
Senator Wiener wrote the bill largely to help end war on drugs-era policies such as mass incarceration of individuals jailed for having non-seller quantities on them when arrested, as well as to increase scientific and medical testing to help those suffering from mental health conditions such as PTSD and depression.
“By decriminalizing we’re not inviting people to use” said Senator Wiener in early April. “We’re taking, instead of a criminal approach to drug use, a health-minded approach. SB 519 is a step toward dismantling the failed and racist War on Drugs, because locking people up for drug use doesn’t work.”
To bring that point home, his most recent amendment to SB 519 added a section detailing how Oregon, as well as cities across the United States including Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor, MI, Somerville, MA, and Cambridge, MA have all passed some form of psychedelic decriminalization measures. Other cities that passed such measures, such as Northampton, MA and Denver, had not been added by Wiener as of the last amendment.
A long road to the suspense file vote
SB 519 has had a rocky road to the Senate floor, with numerous Senators in each committee either voting against the bill or electing to not vote. However, it has managed to squeak by each time, with the 5-2 vote on Thursday continuing the trend.
Thursday’s vote differed though, due to the bill being in a suspense file. With looming passage deadlines, SB 519 was one of hundreds placed in the file earlier this month because of the financial impact it may have. Bills in the suspense file are also not up for debate, only relying on a simple yea/nay vote. SB 519 was thus moved up by a simple 5-2 majority.
Supporters celebrated the vote result on Thursday, with Senator Wiener tweeting out “Our legislation to decriminalize psychedelics, SB 519, passed a key committee and will be voted on by the full Senate within the next two weeks.”
However, opponents remained optimistic despite the vote on Thursday.
“It is still being voted against by a significant percentage,” said former police officer and current drug counselor Marty Ribera to the Globe on Thursday. “No one is caving in. And once it hits the big votes in the Senate and Assembly, when citizens can really make their voices heard, they are going to be bombarded by a lot of citizens against this. They won a few battles, but the war really hasn’t started yet.”
SB 519 is due to be voted on in the Senate by June 4th. If passed, it will then move on to an Assembly Committee.
View Comments (77)
Call your State Senator and Assembly Member and tell them to VOTE NO ON SB519 !
Here's mine:
SB519 will promote promiscuous use and provide a gateway to other hardcore drugs if enacted. Law enforcement and parent organizations oppose the legalization of these mind-altering drugs; as do a majority of ordinary citizens. The exception would be in the drug dens of San Francisco where Senator Weiner serves. I would recommend that YOU oppose this legislation.
P.S. Feel free to copy, paste and send to your legislators.
@Raymond: SB 519's most vocal supporters are combat vets with PTSD. Most citizens want the vets to get better, rather than tossing them in jail or making them travel outside the USA to get treatment.
The problem here is lack of education. If you would review actual research, you'd find that the materials in the bill do not have addictive potential, and have a pretty good track record of releasing people from addictions. Bill W (founder of AA) is the best known addict whose life was changed by LSD, back before it was put on Schedule I.
Concerned Citizen, it's my understanding that PTSD can be treated without creating dependency on these drugs. No, imo, the MAIN reason to legalize these drugs is for people to make MONEY: https://investingtrends.com/CLABF/ride-shotgun-with-peter-thiel-as-he-unleashes-his-disruptive-powers-on-a-prime-target-big-pharma/?utm_campaign=CLABF_SPG&utm_source=10302&utm_medium=nlspon&utm_content=mushroom
P.S. An lets not forget that a "harmless" drug can be made "lethal" when laced with Fentanyl. Would these new legalized drugs be coming from China? I suppose THAT would be one way to find a solution to the homeless problem, eh? That would NOT be MY approach.
@Raymond, there is zero evidence for dependency on MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, ibogaine. As I've pointed out, psychedelic experiences have been used successfully to cancel dependency on alcohol, tobacco, opiates and other truly addictive drugs.
Of course there are companies forming who want to make money by developing psychedelic therapies. Are you against capitalism? Especially Thiel, who is the poster boy for venture capital investment. It should be noted, however, that SB-519 doesn't change criminal penalties for selling or even possession for purpose of sale. It doesn't exactly advance Thiel's objectives.
Concerned Citizen, your naivete borders on pathetic. Legalizing marijuana has created a booming business for the drug cartels who have moved their production facilities to LA county (recent Globe article). These same cartels will make a fortune on the drugs you want to make legal. If there's money to be made you can be sure that the criminal element will be there, legalized or not. Legalizing the drugs simply removes the barrier of drug enforcement and makes it EASIER for them. GROW UP.
So make it (money)
This is nonsense, "Concerned Citizen." To repeat, the state should not be promoting use of psychotropic substances in any event, and certainly not now, with so much psychosis already on the streets and elsewhere. Really, it’s absurd.
As I’m sure you know, there was, and probably still is, a school of thought that people could open their creative minds, enlighten themselves, “see God,” lift neuroses, etc., through hallucinogenic drugs, but it seems to me the potential for lingering psychoses and other things that can and do go wrong have been conveniently left out of that discussion. They don’t even want to be truthful about the downside of marijuana, for crying out loud, which can trigger psychosis in young people and cause a whole host of other health and life problems.
I say, whether it’s pot or heroin, LSD or mushrooms, the generation that used this stuff most widely in their youth and beyond is now running the state of California, and look at what a mess we’re in now because of THEIR wacky thinking.
@showandtell, be careful what you call "nonsense!" The State already promotes alcohol, tobacco and prescription opiates. These materials are actively advertised in public media, and they are dramatically addictive (ever heard of the Sackler family?). Cannabis less so, but about 6 percent of the population with easy access to cannabis will develop a pattern of chronic use. This is definitely not true for psychedelics. Studies have demonstrated that these drugs have the lowest potential for habituation of any known psychoactive material. And not just a little bit lower, but unmeasurable.
There's more than just a "school of thought" on managing mental illness. There's solid scientific evidence.
Cannabis is not a psychedelic.
I understand that, in your mind, psychedelics are "just like" pot and heroin. The problem is that this is simply false. Broad associations of drug use and politics you don't like is impossible to refute, because it's all in your head.
"...psychedelic experiences have been used successfully to cancel dependency on alcohol, tobacco, opiates and other truly addictive drugs."
Sure dude, when you're tripping out of your mind on psychedelics, who NEEDS "alcohol, tobacco, opiates or other addictive drugs"...
Not without medical supervision, under physical control to prevent you stoners from driving high, or otherwise exposing normal citizens to your self-indulgent behaviors and desires....
Call or email your state senator and strongly urge a NO vote on SB 519
You are on the wrong thread. Everyone else here is brain dead.
Call your State Senator and Assembly Member and tell them to VOTE YES on SB-519.
Just sent CA State Senator an email! Vote on No on SB519!
We must let them know this can lead to unintended consequences.
Enough with the drug culture whether it be legal or not!
Weiner is determined to destroy this state. Just imagine how many "homeless", drug addicted and mentally ill people will be wandering the streets should this pass.
@CW: Just imagine how many addicts and mentally ill people, plus combat vets with PTSD will get relief from their condition and rejoin productive society rather than wandering the streets.
I get that you find this difficult to believe because it runs against what we've all been indoctrinated with for decades. Do you trust science? Do you believe published and reviewed research has any meaning at all? Or do you have more faith in Richard Nixon (source of the Controlled Substances Act) than in facts?
Right. It's time to change the old " Reefer Madness" indoctrination and believe SCIENCE !! AGREED !
How about just doing your mushrooms or whatever, "Concerned Citizen," readily available to you I'm sure, and leave the stamp-of-approval legislation out of it?
You obviously have an interest in seeing widespread use of this stuff, and I'd love to know what your interest REALLY is. Concern about vets? PLEASE. We're not buying it here. Come clean!
@Showandtell, there's no "stamp of approval" here. No new industry that will advertise and promote products. Just an end to incarceration of people and the threat of incarceration or losing a job when all we want is to live productive lives. I have friends who are vets and friends who are not vets. Some of my vet friends earned purple hearts. I'm thinking of one in particular who is still in the service as a physician. He can't wait to get out so he can medicate and not worry about what happens the next time he's randomly pee-tested. He can't go to concerts and similar events because it triggers him. Guys like him, who served in Iraq, guys (and their wives) who slept with one eye open, listening for incoming ordnance month after month have it worse than anybody else I've seen. And why should I and my friends be threatened with jail time for self-help behavior that increases productivity, health and well-being? Just because you and your friends can't believe research? Why is that so hard to accept?
@Concerned Citizen, one solution to these "problems" for you and your friends (all five of them) would be to move to Alaska or better yet Canada. You can start an off-grid commune, build log cabins and live off the land. You folks could hunt and fish and breathe fresh air. There would be clean water to drink and access to natural resources. No silly rules to follow or drug-testing to worry about. If you folks can make a go of it, out in the wilderness with the wolverines and bears, in a few years who knows, someone might offer you folks a reality TV show on National Geographic or Discovery Channel.
Weiner is a complete asswipe...
Here's your dog whistle term, so you know this legislation is complete bovine excrement :
"failed and racist "
weiner is a damn demon
Take a good look at Weiner, I believe his bill is self-serving and that he was under the influence when he penned the bill.
No kidding, S.
With 60,000 homeless on the streets of LA county now, a significant number of whom are mental ill or drug addicted, what could possible go wrong? Thanks, Senator Wiener, you certainly are a problem solver.
@James: "...what could possible go wrong?" To begin with, some fraction of the people who are mentally ill will stop having symptoms and join the rest of society. Per current research, people with depression do better after psychedelic experiences than people who are medicated with SSRIs. Ibogaine works on a larger fraction of addicts than any other treatment, and that after only one and sometimes two sessions.
How come people like "Concerned Citizen" always show up to promote their drug legalization propaganda but never show up at any other time for any other issue that is destroying California? Hmm?
@Showandtell, I assume you have no PTSD. The crazy thing is that, statistically, if you have any friends at all, you are likely to know somebody with PTSD. If you have a job that puts you in regular contact with people in the service, or if you have family members who wear the uniform, if you befriend even a fraction of those people to the point that they will be honest with you about what their lives are actually like, you are guaranteed to have friends with PTSD that cannot be treated by any means the VA has to offer. Maybe you think they are weak and not worthy to be your friends because they are alcoholics or opiate-addicts. But these are typical manifestations of PTSD.
Concerned Citizen, stop grandstanding by waving the American flag at us. You have no idea how many people on this forum have sacrificed and served this country in the military. Furthermore, I would estimate that none of your critics HERE would object to "medical marijuana" or medicinal use of ANY drugs under SUPERVISED CARE. The issue is LEGALIZATION.
There is no point in having LSD, mushrooms, peyote, mescaline, and DMT criminalized. These are harmless
drugs used by harmless people who are going to use them whether criminalized or not.
My attitude is different on the others. Isn't ketamine used as a horse tranquilizer and a date rape drug? Why
do you need that? Don't some of these other drugs have bad physical side effects?
Our only hope is a foreign nation to liberate us.
@Jay: You have that shoe on the wrong foot! The whole purpose of the psychedelics is "to liberate us."
BLM is the cutting edge of Democrat policy. They explicitly reject rational thought, reason, science, math and everything else that reason and sanity demand. Flooding the streets with psychedelics will produce the type of society Democrats want: One ruled by psychotic violence.
Remember the "medicinal" pot lie?
YES, I remember the "medicinal" pot lie all too well, CW. These people NEVER stop lying when it serves them. NEVER. They are sociopaths and con artists.
@CW. Maybe I missed it. What does BLM have to do with psychedelics?
Again,... Cannabis isn't a psychedelic. Just like spinach isn't a fruit.
Pot can induce severe mental illness (well documented fact). BLM is the true manifestation of the Democrat party. When they reject sanity and reason it means that the Democrats do too. I have known people who have used psychedelics. These drugs permanently damage their brains and personalities.
Stoned and brain damaged crazy people are easily manipulated into violence hence the Democrat interest in legalizing dangerous drugs.
The article states: Those with prior criminal offenses for possession and use would have also have their records expunged under the bill,..." Just before the suspense file hearing, Wiener amended the bill to remove expungement and resentancing. So this part of the article is no longer accurate.