Politics

A resolution decriminalizing… cultivation and distribution of psychedelic plants

WHEREAS: the so-called War on Drugs has led to the unnecessary penalization, arrest,and incarceration of vulnerable people, particularly people of color and people of limited financial means…

WHEREAS: that American cities have long possessed an inferred constitutional right to regulate commerce and public safety within their jurisdictions, a principle acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Justice Cole Memorandum that permitted states and localities to deprioritize law enforcement of cannabis charges WHEREAS: the City Council of Somerville (9-0) and the City Council of Cambridge (8-1) passed similar resolutions following approval of their legal departments as well as decriminalization by Oakland, Denver, Ann Arbor, Santa Cruz, Washington D.C, Oregon, and around six other countries; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council hereby maintains it should be the policy of the City of Northampton that the investigation and arrest of adult persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, and/or possessing entheogenic plants listed in Classes A-E of Chapter 94C § 31 of Massachusetts law or Schedules I-V of 21 U.S.C. § 812 of the Controlled Substances Act shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Northampton. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution does not authorize or enable any of the following activities: commercial sale of entheogenic plants and fungi…

Original Article (Northamptonma.gov):
A resolution decriminalizing controlled substance possession as well as cultivation and distribution of psychedelic plants
Artwork Fair Use: OOISI01