{"id":49472,"date":"2021-08-17T04:59:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T12:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/08\/17\/ann-arbor-city-council-declares-psychedelics-awareness-month-for-september\/"},"modified":"2021-08-17T13:46:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T21:46:01","slug":"ann-arbor-city-council-declares-psychedelics-awareness-month-for-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/08\/17\/ann-arbor-city-council-declares-psychedelics-awareness-month-for-september\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Arbor City Council Declares Psychedelics Awareness Month For September"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Nearly one year after the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council voted to decriminalize a wide-range of psychedelics<\/a>, lawmakers on Monday approved a resolution to officially designate September as Entheogenic Plants and Fungi Awareness Month.<\/p>\n

The measure, sponsored by Councilmember Jeff Hayner (D) and backed by Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor, passed in a unanimous vote on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Text of the resolution states that certain psychedelics have been shown to have therapeutic value for mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and end-of-life anxiety.<\/p>\n

It also points out that the Food and Drug Administration has granted a breakthrough therapy designation for psilocybin in cases of major depressive disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractices with entheogenic plants\/fungi have been considered sacred to human cultures and human relationships with nature for thousands of years,\u201d the resolution<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

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It further notes<\/a> that, after Ann Arbor elected to make enforcement of laws against psychedelics among the city\u2019s lowest priorities, a county prosecutor announced in January that his office will not be pursuing charges<\/a> over possessing marijuana or entheogenic substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca\u2014\u201cregardless of the amount at issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to proclaiming \u201cSeptember to be Entheogenic Plant and Fungi Awareness Month in Ann Arbor, Michigan,\u201d the measure says the City Council \u201cadvocates increased awareness and understanding of the potential benefits of entheogens for mental health, personal and spiritual growth, as well as honoring the long standing ancestral practices and relationships with these entheogens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Julie Barron, co-director of Decriminalize Nature Michigan and executive director of Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor, told Marijuana Moment that the group is \u201cso pleased\u201d with the Council\u2019s passage of the resolution, which \u201cshows their continued support of this local movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeptember is gearing up to be a wonderful month here in Ann Arbor and throughout the whole state of Michigan,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s \u201clikely that Decriminalize Nature Grand Rapids will introduce their [psychedelics decriminalization] resolution<\/a> to it\u2019s city commissioners in September, and the vote is looking very promising.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group said in a Facebook post that it\u2019s working with lawmakers to introduce a statewide psychedelics decriminalization bill in the state Senate next month.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Decriminalize Nature (@decriminalizenature)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Activists in another Michigan city, Hazel Park, will also be speaking before local lawmakers on this issue on September 7, Barron said.<\/p>\n

Psychedelics reform is also currently advancing<\/a> in Easthampton, Massachusetts and Arcata, California.<\/p>\n

Other Massachusetts cities that have enacted the policy change are:\u00a0Northampton<\/a>,\u00a0Somerville<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cambridge<\/a>. And earlier this month, state lawmakers\u00a0also heard testimony about a bill<\/a>\u00a0to create a task force charged with\u00a0studying the implications of legalizing psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In California,\u00a0Oakland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Santa Cruz<\/a>\u00a0have already enacted psychedelics decriminalization.<\/p>\n

Voters in Washington, D.C. approved a ballot measure to decriminalize psychedelics in the nation\u2019s capital<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the burgeoning psychedelics movement has been limited to decriminalization\u2014with the exception or Oregon, where voters elected to\u00a0legalize psilocybin for therapeutic purposes<\/a>\u00a0during last year\u2019s election. California activists are also pushing to place\u00a0psilocybin legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a>\u00a0as a lawmaker works to pass a separate bill to\u00a0legalize possession of a wide range of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0that has already passed the state Senate and two Assembly committees.<\/p>\n

All of these latest developments are some of the latest iterations of a national psychedelics reform movement that\u2019s spread since Denver became the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms<\/a>\u00a0in 2019.<\/p>\n

The Aspen, Colorado City Council\u00a0discussed the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0like psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances at a meeting in May. But members said, as it stands, enacting a reform would be more better handled at the state level while entheogens remain strictly federally controlled.<\/p>\n

Seattle lawmakers also recently sent a letter to members of a local task force focused on the opioid overdose epidemic, imploring the group to\u00a0investigate the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0like ayahuasca and ibogaine in curbing addiction.<\/p>\n

The psychedelics conversation is also catching on at the federal level.<\/p>\n

But in a setback for advocates, the U.S. House of Representatives recently voted against a proposal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that would have removed a spending bill rider<\/a>\u00a0that advocates say has restricted federal funds for research into Schedule I drugs, including psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine. However, it picked up considerably more votes this round than\u00a0when the congresswoman first introduced it<\/a>\u00a0in 2019.<\/p>\n

Report provisions of separate, House-passed spending legislation also touch on the need to\u00a0expand cannabis and psychedelics research<\/a>. The panel urged the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) to support expanded marijuana studies, for example<\/p>\n

It further says that federal health agencies should\u00a0pursue research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0for military veterans suffering from a host of mental health conditions.<\/p>\n

When it comes to broader drug policy reform, Oregon voters also approved an initiative in November to\u00a0decriminalize possession of all drugs<\/a>. This year, the Maine House of Representatives\u00a0passed a drug decriminalization bill<\/a>, but it later\u00a0died in the Senate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In May, lawmakers in Congress filed the\u00a0first-ever legislation to federally decriminalize possession<\/a>\u00a0of illicit substances.<\/p>\n

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Four States Report Record-Breaking Marijuana Sales In July<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia\/Workman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Ann Arbor City Council Declares Psychedelics Awareness Month For September<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Nearly one year after the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council voted to decriminalize a wide-range of psychedelics, lawmakers on Monday approved a resolution to officially designate September as Entheogenic Plants and Fungi Awareness Month. The measure, sponsored by Councilmember Jeff Hayner (D) and backed by Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor, passedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49473,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49472\/revisions\/49473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}