CA's Psilocybin Legalization Campaign OK'd To Collect Signatures

CALIFORNIA — An effort seeking to legalize the possession, sale, and use of psilocybin mushrooms statewide in California was cleared this month to start gathering enough signatures to get the ballot initiative before voters in 2024.

The recent title and summary approval from the Secretary of State's Office allows the reform effort organized by Decriminalize California to move forward for a third time after failing to collect enough signatures in 2020 and 2022.

This year, organizers see an easier path to land on the ballot, citing a lower 546,651 signature threshold, and the absence of pandemic-era roadblocks that made signature gathering more difficult. Volunteers have until Jan. 10 to meet that goal.

"The last two times we needed to submit 623,212 valid signatures but because of all the madness over the Gavin Newsom recall for once political apathy worked in our favor as roughly 2 million fewer voters turned out for the gubernatorial election saving us 76,561 valid signatures," wrote Ryan Munevar, the campaign's director, in an e-mail to supporters. "Now that the plague is over, we can take advantage of all the summer festivals and fully activate our college teams for tabling days when they are back in session in late August and September."

The initiative's language would legalize the use of psilocybin mushrooms for medical, therapeutic, religious, spiritual, and recreational use for people 21 and older, and set up a statewide framework allowing for retail sales, including at farmers' markets. Cities and counties would have the option to locally implement bans or limits on mushroom sellers within their jurisdictions.

There would be no set possession limits, and psilocybin products used for medical or therapeutic purposes would not be subject to taxes. Products sold recreationally would apply a standard sales tax.

Here are a few highlights of what the initiative would do:

• Decriminalize the cultivation, manufacture, processing, distribution, transportation, possession, storage, sale and personal use of psilocybin mushrooms for people 21 and over, including "edible products and extracts derived from them."
• Allow "qualified healthcare practitioners" to use psilocybin mushrooms for research, treatment, and therapy.
• Require California to implement "qualification requirements and protocols" for psilocybin-assisted therapy.
• Allows for criminal records related to prior psilocybin-related offenses to be sealed, if the sentence has been completed.

If the initiative is successful, elements would begin to take effect in 2025. California would join Oregon, the first U.S. state to decriminalize and legalize psilocybin in 2020, and Colorado, which decriminalized psilocybin and four other psychedelics by initiative last year.

A legislative effort to decriminalize the possession of psilocybin, mescaline, and other psychedelic substances is also underway in California and currently sits before a committee in the State Assembly.

A handful of California cities have already taken action to decriminalize psilocybin locally, including Oakland in 2019 and Santa Cruz in 2020. Leaders in Arcata voted to deprioritize enforcement in 2021. The statewide initiative would go further in setting up a full legal and recreational framework.

California's latest push comes amid a wave of proposed legal reforms related to psychedelics seen across the country in recent years, including legislative or initiative efforts in Washington, Michigan, New York and New Jersey.