California Could Decriminalize Psychedelics Under New State And Local Proposals

Just one week after voters in Oregon and Washington, D.C. passed ballot measures to scale back outright prohibitions on psychedelics by wide margins, a California lawmaker says he’ll introduce a bill to decriminalize the substances in his state.

Activists in San Francisco, meanwhile, are separately pushing local officials to make laws against psychedelic plants and fungi the jurisdiction’s lowest law enforcement priority.

Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said Tuesday that he plans to introduce the statewide decriminalization bill in Sacramento once the legislature returns in early January. Language of the proposal has yet to be released, but Wiener described the reform in a Twitter thread as an “important step toward a more rational, science-based, and public-health-focused approach to drugs.”