A campaign to decriminalize «magic mushrooms» in California»

A campaign to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms has received the green light from California's Secretary of State to begin collecting signatures for a ballot initiative, which would allow in fine citizens of the state to vote for (or against) the proposal.

The initiative would allow doctors to prescribe mushrooms and people to grow and use them for medical, therapeutic, religious, spiritual and recreational purposes for people aged 21 and over, and a national framework is to be put in place to allow retail sales, including at farmers' markets. Cities and counties would have the option of locally applying bans or limits to mushroom sellers on their territory.

There would be no possession limit, and psilocybin products used for medical or therapeutic purposes would not be subject to taxes. Products sold for recreational purposes would be subject to normal sales tax.

It would also allow criminal records to be expunged on a case-by-case basis for people accused of using mushrooms.

Ryan Munevar, director of the California decriminalization campaign, explains that this is the third time they've tried to gather enough signatures.

«The first few times we tried to do this, COVID didn't really help us,» he said. «In the very first round, the goal was to get 623,212 valid signatures and, in the middle of collecting signatures, everything stopped in the state.»

This time, he's more confident. «I don't think it will happen again,» said Munevar. «We think we have a very good chance.»

The campaign needs to collect nearly 547,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Munevar said that 3,200 volunteers were hard at work in every county of the state, collecting signatures one by one.

If the initiative is successful, it will come into force in 2025. California would join Oregon, first American state to decriminalize and legalize psilocybin in 2020, and Colorado, which has decriminalized psilocybin and four other psychedelic substances by an initiative taken last year.

A legislative effort to decriminalize possession of psilocybin, mescaline and other psychedelic substances is also underway in California and is currently being examined by a committee of the state assembly.

A handful of California cities have already taken steps to decriminalize psilocybin at the local level, including Oakland in 2019 and Santa Cruz in 2020. The statewide initiative would go further in establishing a comprehensive legal and recreational framework.

The latest Californian initiative is part of an ongoing wave of legal reform proposals linked to psychedelics, observed in recent years across the country, including initiatives or legislative projects in Washington, Michigan, New York and New Jersey.