Biography/Memoir

How a trip on psilocybin-containing mushrooms helped decriminalize psychedelic plants in a US city

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An agenda report to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, signed by City Council Member Noel Gallo, cites Decriminalize Nature Oakland’s opposition to sale of the plants. The report suggests that, to improve access, the city could have collectives to “provide a space to have an experience” or “road people” who could “visit those in hospice care or unable to leave their home.” “It really is high-intentioned here,” Carlos Plazola said. “It’s not about money. Making it all about money is how we got into a place of opiate addiction and a horrible healthcare system.”

That mushroom trip… by Plazola, the well-connected onetime chief of staff of a former Oakland City Council president, helped make Oakland the first city in California and the second in the nation to effectively decriminalize… [psilocybin-containing] mushrooms. For five hours, he… [consumed the psilocybin-containing] mushrooms, nibbling the fungi and sipping them in tea. He ingested 5 grams – a heady amount that connoisseurs call the “heroic dose.” He started having epiphanies, one right after the other … The City Council on June 4, 2019 approved its ordinance [to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi] unanimously [with two members in absentia], with little pushback. Oakland even went a step further by decriminalizing not just mushrooms but also a range of other psychoactive plants and compounds including peyote, iboga and ayahuasca. “Walgreens is not the only solution,” City Councilor Noel Gallo said. “When I go to the doctor, all they want to do is drug me.”

Original Article (LA Times):
How a trip on magic mushrooms helped decriminalize psychedelic plants in a California city
Artwork Fair Use: Public Domain

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