Santa Cruz decriminalizes all natural psychedelics

Santa Cruz has become the second American city to decriminalize virtually all herbal and mushroom-based psychedelic substances. On Tuesday evening, the City Council of Santa Cruz, California voted unanimously (7-0) in favor of the measure.

The original draft stated that «the apprehension of persons twenty-one years of age and older involved in the personal consumption by adults and personal possession of Schedule 1 federally listed entheogenic psychoactive plants and mushrooms are among the lowest priorities for the City of Santa Cruz.»

In simple terms, any adult aged 21 or over caught with a reasonably small quantity of psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca or peyote will not be troubled by the Santa Cruz police. And the cultivation of natural psychedelics for personal use is also decriminalized.

Last November, the Santa Cruz City Council welcomed the group behind the resolution, Decriminalize Santa Cruz. Decriminalizing cultivation was a priority for activists. «[If] possession and use [had been decriminalized] without cultivation, it would actually encourage the black market,» said Santa Cruz Mayor Justin Cummings, «If people cultivate ... they know exactly what they're producing.»

Santa Cruz is the second city in California to decriminalize or tolerate natural psychedelics. In June last year, Oakland became the first to reform its position towards almost all psychedelics derived from plants and mushrooms by adopting a city ordinance.

A month earlier, Denver, Colorado, became the first American city to officially decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms by popular vote. These initiatives are now being taken up by nearly 100 American towns and cities planning to decriminalize or tolerate psychedelic substances in the near future, and by the state of Vermont, which could become the first American state to decriminalize psychedelics.