Will the science for psychedelic[s] ever line up with the law?
The states didn’t want some 70-year-old terminal cancer patient having to grow their own medicine, but they said that’s better than threatening to arrest that patient. You might see a similar tit-for-tat in the psychedelics realm… legal reform efforts are spreading… raising tensions between [local], state and federal laws. More than 60 percent of Americans now support regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics, while nearly half support decriminalization, and nearly 45 percent support spiritual and religious use. An estimated 5.5 million US adults use psychedelics each year.
Oregon has tried to jump the gun a little bit with psilocybin. What they’re envisioning is a tightly regulated state supply system. You can’t buy it and use it at home at your leisure [or for diagnosed medical conditions, a right so basic, it’s simply a matter of fact for cannabis in Oregon] – you have to use it at a state-licensed psilocybin service center. The problem with that is that it’s much easier for the federal government to shut down state-regulated suppliers because you’ve got a list of them, so it puts those suppliers in harm’s way. They can be arrested, prosecuted, thrown in prison for long terms, and their assets seized… politically, it would be easier to convince a majority of the public to support a ballot initiative to legalize some psychedelics, like psilocybin, for medical use. It would be a simpler story than saying, “Some people here want to go out and trip.” …with marijuana, states said… to the… federal level… “We’re going to call your bluff.… we’re not going to arrest patients. Instead, we’re going to tell patients to grow it themselves, get it from a friend or the black market.”
Original Article (Inverse):
Will the science for psychedelic[s] ever line up with the law?
Artwork Fair Use: Sriveenkat
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