Psychedelics Decriminalization Project In Berkeley, Cal Includes Synthetic Substances

The Berkeley City Council will soon consider a psychedelics decriminalization project that includes not only natural entheogenic substances but also the synthetic hallucinogen LSD, reported Berkeleyside.

According to Berkeley community health commissioners Joseph Holcomb Adams and Karma Smart, the reason why LSD is included in the list of decriminalized substances is that it meets the technical definition of what a psychedelic is. 

The original project was first drafted in 2019 by Decriminalize Nature Oakland and council member Rigel Robinson and involved the deprioritization of natural psychedelics -AKA entheogenic plants and fungi. It lingered in Berkeley’s Community Health Commission (CHC) office until 2021 when commissioners Adams and Smart rewrote it. 

The new project seeks to decriminalize personal consumption, while sharing, gifting or distributing psychedelics would still be criminalized. As this second part opposes the original proposal by Decriminalize Nature, which decriminalized possession and deprioritized cultivation, use, sharing, purchasing, transporting or distributing natural substances, the nonprofit is against the upcoming psychedelics reform and hopes the city council will reconsider the original project.

“We believe the simplicity of the original version, removing criminal penalties for growing, gathering, and gifting of natural entheogenic plants and fungi and practices, will have a better chance of passing at council,” said nonprofit member Norris.

The project will be presented next Tuesday to the CHC, when the commission will decide whether to refer it to the City Council for a final vote.

How Changes In The Decriminalization Project Rolled Out

When the original resolution was drafted by Decriminalize Nature and councilmember Rigel Robinson in mid-2019, the CHC created a special subcommittee to study the project and report to the city council, but the emergence of COVID-19 had all resources redirected to the pandemic.  

Subcommittee members Adams and Smart took the original proposal back on earlier this year but were concerned that it would enable an unregulated buying and selling of psychedelics without a harm reduction strategy.

The new version proposes that Berkeley works with outer organizations to provide psychedelic education and harm-reduction strategies.

Furthermore, the commissioners changed the term “entheogenic plants” to “psychedelic drugs,” defined as substances that stimulate “a specific subtype of serotonin brain receptor,” 5-HT2A. 

The new proposal drafters said they are grouping the compounds “based on shared pharmacology and effects.” The list of these “classic psychedelics” includes magic mushrooms, mescaline, LSD, DMT and ayahuasca, but leaves out, for instance, ibogaine, as it works on a different brain receptor.

Peyote was also excluded, following an exemption request by the National Council of Native American Churches (NACNA) in order to ensure the cactus’ preservation.

Photo courtesy of Olia Danilevich on Pexels.