Michigan Activists Submit Language For Psychedelics Decrim Bill With Harm Reduction Component

The Michigan Initiative for Community Healing recently filed a ballot initiative to legalize the production and distribution of entheogenic plants or fungus with certain natural psychedelics and to establish a system for their therapeutic and spiritual use.  

On Tuesday, the committee filed language for the proposed ballot measure, reported High Times.

“We are thrilled to have filed our language with the State of Michigan and we look forward to approval by the State Board of Canvassers and hitting the ground with petitions,” Myc Williams co-director of Decriminalize Nature Michigan told mlive.com. The initiative would allow organizations and entities designated by hospitals to produce and sell entheogenic plants.

The Initiative for Community Healing is comprised of such organizations as Decriminalize Nature and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

“SSDP is proud to have pushed forward a policy that radically reduces criminalization of people who use drugs,” Jason Ortiz, the group’s executive director, told Marijuana Moment. “Michigan was a state that still has life sentences for drug possession, and today we moved a step closer to ending the madness that is this war on our communities.”Before the committee can start collecting signatures from registered voters, the proposal needs approval from the Board of State Canvassers.

The proposal seeks to reduce penalties for all controlled substance use and possession in the Wolverine State.

Harm Reduction

Possession of 1,000 grams or more of any drug would be reduced from a felony with a maximum possible sentence of life imprisonment to a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of $1,000.

Penalties would get incrementally smaller for possession cases involving lower amounts of controlled substances. 

The initiative would also remove testing equipment from the state’s legal definition of paraphernalia. This would help protect people from harmful additives including fentanyl. “People who choose to use drugs can be charged with another crime to test their substance… to know in fact what they are ingesting,” Williams said.

“In a time of heavy fentanyl overdoses, it’s really important for people who do use drugs to know what they’re consuming regardless of their legality from a public safety perspective,” Williams said. “The state supports harm reduction in the distribution of Narcan and fentanyl strips, which fentanyl strips are technically illegal. There’s a contradiction there and we’re just clearing it up.”

Photo by Mulyadi on Unsplash.