Maine's Portland Leads Drug Policy Reform, Decriminalizing Psychedelic Plants And Fungi

The City Council in Portland, Maine recently voted 6-3 in favor of a resolution deprioritizing local law enforcement for possession, use, cultivation for personal use or sharing psychedelic plants and fungi, placing controlled substances consumption as a public health matter.

See Also: Psychedelics Reform Update: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana

The city’s departments, agencies, boards, commissions, officers or employees are now instructed to “avoid using city funds or resources to assist in the investigation, criminal prosecution or the imposition of criminal penalties” for such cases. 

Although the substances would remain illegal under state law, the new local enforcement deprioritization applies to all plants and fungi containing psilocybin, psilocin, ibogaine, mescaline (peyote excluded) and DMT “in order to facilitate access to people who need this for a public health benefit,” explained councilor Anna Trevorrow.

The measure states that “the use and possession of all controlled substances should be understood primarily as an issue of public health.”

Prior to the vote, councilor April Fournier emphasized the measure’s advancement from a medical and wellness perspective, “really looking at the natural use of these different plants” as they were intended to really provide support for those in need.

Councilor Victoria Pelletier forcefully called on the HHS of Public Safety Committee (where she’s a member) to discuss harm reduction and “actually center the work that we do around impacted parties dealing with substance use.”

That committee was responsible for first passing the resolution last month. Before voting, the panel held a public comment session, where speakers unanimously supported the law change considering people “are already taking plant medicines” and decriminalize will favor it is done in “safe and supportive” environments.  

The measure takes base on similar resolutions passed in Massachusetts, nearing Portland to the several other U.S. cities that have also decriminalized “natural” psychedelics “in a way that avoids the problems of commercialization through the grow, gather, give model,” said speaker Wendy Chapkis, a sociology professor and a board member of state-level nonprofit Decriminalize Maine.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo by chekart and YP_Studio on Shutterstock.