{"id":70924,"date":"2023-12-13T09:40:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T17:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/seventh-massachusetts-city-votes-to-deprioritize-arrests-for-psychedelic-plants-and-fungi\/"},"modified":"2023-12-13T19:46:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T03:46:15","slug":"seventh-massachusetts-city-votes-to-deprioritize-arrests-for-psychedelic-plants-and-fungi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2023\/12\/13\/seventh-massachusetts-city-votes-to-deprioritize-arrests-for-psychedelic-plants-and-fungi\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventh Massachusetts City Votes To Deprioritize Arrests For Psychedelic Plants And Fungi"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Lawmakers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, voted this week to adopt a resolution in support of decriminalizing the use, possession and noncommercial sharing of psychedelic plants and fungi. It\u2019s the seventh municipality in the state to deprioritize arrests for entheogens.<\/p>\n

The statement also calls on the county district attorney to cease prosecutions for psychedelics-related activity as well as for simple possession of all drugs. Further, it urges state lawmakers to amend a pending proposal that would legalize psychedelics in all of Massachusetts<\/a> and could end up on the 2024 ballot.<\/p>\n

The Provincetown Select Board passed the resolution on a 3\u20131 vote on Monday, with a fifth member of the board abstaining. The measure \u201crequests that investigation and arrest of all adults for planting, cultivating, distributing, engaging in practices with and\/or possessing psychedelic plants and fungi\u201d be the town\u2019s lowest law enforcement priority, according to a reading of the resolution by Boardmember Erik Borg before the vote.<\/p>\n

It also \u201crequests the use and possession of all controlled substances should be understood first and primarily as an issue of public health by all town entities\u201d and asks that no municipal employee \u201cuse any town resources to assist in enforcement of laws criminalizing personal controlled substance possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution, which also calls on the county district attorney to cease prosecution of people for \u201cpossession, cultivation or distribution or psychedelic plants and fungi as well as personal possession of controlled substances,\u201d emphasizes that it does not authorize commercial sales, driving under the influence of psychedelics, possessing or distributing the substances near schools or \u201cpublic disturbance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group behind the advocacy effort, Bay Staters for Natural Medicine (BSNM), has helped enact similar local policies to deprioritize enforcement of state laws against psychedelics in six other Massachusetts cities: Salem<\/a>,\u00a0Somerville<\/a>,\u00a0Cambridge<\/a>,\u00a0Easthampton<\/a>,\u00a0Northampton<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Amherst<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In Massachusetts, Ptown just became the:<\/p>\n

\"🍄\" 7th city to end plant medicine arrests
\"🍄\" 7th city to call for AFFORDABLE state reform
\"🍄\" 5th city to treat personal possession of all substances as a public health issue#masspoli<\/a> #Massachusetts<\/a>#harmreduction<\/a> @statehousenews<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/bornOx0GaZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bay Staters for Natural Medicine (@baystaters) December 12, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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During a presentation to the Provincetown Select Board, BSNM Executive Director James Davis said the resolution would accomplish three main goals: help promote education about psychedelics for public health, generate economic opportunity for Provincetown and to help guide reform at the state level.<\/p>\n

Davis said that according to internal economic projections, BSNM believes passing the local measure could \u201ccould generate nearly $13 million a year in tax revenues for this municipality,\u201d though he said later on in the presentation that the group projected overall economic activity in Provincetown to be between $920,000 and $13.8 million.<\/p>\n

Pressed on where that money would come from, Davis replied that under proposals pending at the state level, facilitators could register at the state level for less than a few hundred dollars and guide psychedelic services, including for tourists from out of state.<\/p>\n

Davis got into a back-and-forth with one member of the board, Leslie Sandberg, who said she supported the reform in concept but believed that psychedelics should only be available to people under direct medical supervision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think that the first and most positive step is that you have a medical card for it, and you work with a medical professional,\u201d said Sandberg, adding that she knows people in clinical trials for psychedelic-assisted therapy and already believes in the substances\u2019 medical potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow it helps people under medical supervision is amazing,\u201d she told Davis. \u201cI don\u2019t think it should be for recreational use\u2026 You\u2019re offering this, and people are going to start self-medicating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately Sandberg abstained in the final vote, explaining that while she couldn\u2019t vote for the reform, she also felt she couldn\u2019t vote against it.<\/p>\n

Another member of the board said at Monday\u2019s meeting that he worried the Select Board lacked authority to direct law enforcement activity, as the bill seemed to do.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Erik Borg, Provincetown Select Board<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Davis replied that because the measure is a resolution, it\u2019s generally understood as a request or statement of the body\u2019s position rather than an explicit instruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other townships where we\u2019ve worked, we acknowledge that this is a resolution,\u201d he told the board. \u201cIt\u2019s already understood to be an ask of the police department and the city employees it specifies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a version of this discussion many times,\u201d Davis added, \u201cand we often maintain because it\u2019s a resolution that those changes are not as necessary\u2026 And we feel that a strong statement starts that dialogue with the police department and helps us carry on that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The municipal-level advocacy is unfolding as advocates attempt to bring about change at the state level. And among its other provisions, the new Provincetown resolution weighs in on how that advocacy should unfold.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the resolution calls on state lawmakers \u201cto substitute the Natural Psychedelic Substance Act, a ballot question written by a DC-based PAC, with language that legalizes plant medicine services in a straightforward manner, without an unelected control commission prone to regulatory capture by interests outside our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure, by the campaign Massachusetts for Mental Health Options, says it turned in more than enough valid signatures<\/a> earlier this month to force legislative consideration of its psychedelics legalization initiative before potentially putting the issue on the state\u2019s 2024 ballot.<\/p>\n

The proposal would create a regulatory framework for lawful and supervised access to psychedelics at licensed facilities. It would also legalize the possession and gifting of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ayahuasca, but it would not otherwise provide for commercial retail sales of the substances.<\/p>\n

The campaign\u00a0first filed two different psychedelics reform initiatives in August<\/a>. After the state attorney general determined that they both met the constitutional requirement for ballot placement<\/a>\u00a0the following months, activists decided to pursue the version that included a home cultivation option.<\/p>\n

Here are the key\u00a0details<\/a>\u00a0of the Natural Psychedelic Substances Act:<\/strong><\/p>\n