During the November 2020 elections, voters in Washington, DC, approved a ballot measure that would decriminalize fungi and plant-based entheogens. Last week, the measure came into effect, with a wide range of psychedelic substances such as ayahuasca and psilocybin officially becoming the lowest priority for local law enforcement.
Despite this, activists from the Plant Medicine Coalition (“PMC”) who were behind the initiative are now calling for the enactment of additional laws to provide child and worker protections associated with the use of these fungi and plant-based substances. The activists are asking that the city provide guidelines to law enforcement about the implications of the new policy.
In an email to its supporters, PMC stated that the document would notify law enforcement of the change in policy while also offering guidance on how to safely assist an individual who may be under the influence of psychedelics. The group added that it would continue to connect officials in the city with researchers, therapists and other experts who would assist in guiding the policy implementation process.
In addition to this, the group is also launching a grants program to assist in building the psychedelics community in DC. Applications will open on April 1, 2021, and the grants will be used to finance community hubs and leadership for multidisciplinary integration, documentation, training and plant-medicine education.
Under the new legislation, the investigation and arrest of individuals aged 18 and above for noncommercial cultivation, growing, purchase, transportation, distribution or engagement in practices that entail the possession of entheogenic fungi and plants, which are classified in the Schedule 1 Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1981, will be treated as the lowest enforcement priorities by law enforcement in the city.
The PMC also revealed that it would be working with the DC Council to come up with a legislation that would ensure child and worker protections by forbidding the firing of an individual for using plant medicines and hindering their children from being removed from their homes for the use of plant medicines.
Apart from this, legislators are already weighing two competing cannabis commerce legislations, one introduced by DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and the other by Mayor Muriel Bowser.
In December 2020, Bowser passed a separate legislation to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia for personal use. Earlier in October 2020, a local councilman introduced a bill that would allow formerly imprisoned individuals to take part in the city’s existing medical marijuana market.
It is good that different jurisdictions, such as Washington DC, have enacted measures to decriminalize or even legalize plant-based psychedelic substances. Such a move is given credence by the fact that companies such as Pure Extracts Technologies Corp. (CSE: PULL) (OTC: PRXTF) are investing heavily in growing its capacity to quickly develop and commercialize medicines and products made from functional mushrooms and psychedelic substances.
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