Psychedelic drug legalization: where Vermont stands on mushrooms, more – Burlington Free Press

How psychedelic drugs could be used to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD

California is on its way to decriminalizing psychedelics. Heres how this plays into the larger movement to legalize psychedelics across the country.

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As a January 2020 bill to decriminalizecertain hallucinogenic drugs in Vermont currently sits in committee, a grassroots petition was recently started to "legalize psychedelics for mental health in Vermont."

Garnering over 260 signatures over the past two weeks, the petition cites research from theJohns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research as evidence of the safety and mental health benefits of psychedelic drugs. Johns Hopkinshas found that psilocybin, also known as "magic mushrooms,"canhelp relievedepression, anxiety,nicotine addiction, and alcohol dependency.

The petition urges Vermont to follow in the steps of other parts of the countrythat have decriminalized certain psychedelics, which includeOregon; Denver; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Santa Cruz, California; and Washington, D.C.

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Bill H.878, introduced byVermont State Representative Brian Cina (P/D-Burlington) would decriminalize "certain drugs commonly used for medicinal, spiritual, religious, or entheogenic purposes," including psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, and kratom.

"It's a waste of society's resources to criminalize behaviors that stretch to the roots of humanity," Cina said.

Psychedelic substanceshave been used by Indigenous people around the world for millennia from the Amazon basin to the Great Plains.We used this medicine before Jesus Christ walked this Earth," Indigenous healing artistLisaNa Macias Red Bear saidin an article by the publicationNEO.LIFE.

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This link between government regulation of psychedelics and the colonization of the Americas connects to the last argument of the Vermont petition: that the criminalization of psychedelics stems from racism and the war on drugs.

Psychedelics usage and research were drastically restricted in the 1970's and 80's as part of a crackdown onthe counterculture movement of the 1960's, writes journalism professor Don Lattin. Harvard University psychologist and"high priest" of psychedelics Dr. Timothy Leary was proclaimed the "most dangerous man in America" by Richard Nixon, whospearheaded the "war on drugs"in 1971.

In every year from 1980 to 2007, Black people across the U.S. were arrested on drug charges at a rate of 2.8 to 5.5 timesthat of white people, Human Rights Watch reports.

Contact April Fisher at (845) 598-0655 or amfisher@freepressmedia.com. Followher on Twitter: @AMFisherMedia

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Psychedelic drug legalization: where Vermont stands on mushrooms, more - Burlington Free Press