Cambridge City Council Decriminalizes Psychedelics And Urges Police To End Drug Arrests More Broadly

Cambridge, Massachusetts has become the latest city to decriminalize a wide range of psychedelics following a City Council vote on Wednesday. But lawmakers also used the opportunity to push for broader reforms that go beyond the entheogen-focused measures approved in other municipalities across the country, calling on police to stop arresting people for possessing or using any illicit drugs.

Local legislators approved the resolution 8-1, making Cambridge the second city in Massachusetts to adopt the psychedelics and drug policy change. The Somerville City Council advanced a similar decriminalization measure last month.

The text of the ordinance states that, like many cities and states across the country, Cambridge has “begun in recent years to recognize that criminalizing users of substances such as cannabis is neither a just or effective legal approach.”