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A Massachusetts campaign has officially turned in a final batch of signatures to put a psychedelics legalization initiative on the state\u2019s November ballot after lawmakers declined to enact the reform legislatively\u2014and activists say they\u2019re confident they\u2019ve secured enough petitions to qualify.<\/p>\n
After previously turning in an initial round of signatures that forced legislators to consider the reform, and they declined to advance it, the campaign Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO) has now submitted another 14,000 signatures to secure ballot placement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support from Massachusetts residents has been overwhelming, we are thrilled to be on the ballot this year,\u201d Emily Oneschuk, a veteran and grassroots outreach director for MMHO, said in a press release on Wednesday. \u201cMassachusetts veterans have been advocating for this type of care for years, it\u2019s time to make it accessible and affordable for them and other struggling Massachusetts residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
This comes about a month after the legislature\u2019s Special Joint Committee on Ballot Initiatives issued a majority report that formally recommended against passing the measure as drafted<\/a>. The panel previously held a hearing to gain expert feedback on the proposal.<\/p>\n The report acknowledged that a growing body of scientific literature shows psychedelics such as psilocybin \u201cmay be highly effective in addressing a variety of adverse mental health conditions\u201d when administered in a controlled environment.<\/p>\n But it said these \u201cpromising findings, however, have not provided evidence that the widescale recreational legalization of these substances would be beneficial, let alone safe.\u201d<\/p>\n The joint committee also said it believes the measure\u2019s primary goals of licensing psychedelics service centers while broadly decriminalizing the substances for adults \u201clikely undercut each other by creating two separate systems for the use of psychedelic substances.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are the key\u00a0details<\/a>\u00a0of the Natural Psychedelic Substances Act:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The campaign\u00a0first filed two different psychedelics reform initiatives in August<\/a>, and after the state attorney general determined that\u00a0they 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 Eight cities across Massachusetts have enacted policies to locally deprioritize enforcement of laws against psychedelics, an effort that has been led by BSNM:\u00a0Salem<\/a>,\u00a0Somerville<\/a>,\u00a0Cambridge<\/a>,\u00a0Easthampton<\/a>,\u00a0Northampton<\/a>,\u00a0Amherst,<\/a>\u00a0Provincetown<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Medford<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, Gov. Maura Healy (D) in January drew attention to testimony around a veterans-focused bill that she\u2019s introduced to create a psychedelics work group that would\u00a0study the therapeutic potential of substances such as psilocybin<\/a>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans (HERO Act)<\/a> is a wide-ranging proposal focused on veterans, but it cleared both chambers in different forms with the psychedelics policy reform provisions<\/a> attached. They must now be reconciled before going to Healy for final approval.<\/p>\n Another bill introduced in the legislature would authorize the Department of Public Health to conduct a comprehensive study into the potential therapeutic effects of synthetic psychedelics like MDMA.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a different Massachusetts legislative committee advanced a bill in February that would\u00a0legalize psilocybin therapy in the Commonwealth and set up a framework to license facilitators<\/a>\u00a0who would supervise medical, therapeutic and spiritual applications of the drug.<\/p>\n Rep. Mike Connolly (D) also filed a bill in measure that received a Joint Judiciary Committee hearing<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0studying the implications of legalizing entheogenic substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca<\/a>.<\/p>\n New Bipartisan Congressional Bill Would Expunge Federal Marijuana Records<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype<\/a> and Apollo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Massachusetts Campaign Turns In Final Signatures To Put Psychedelics Legalization On The November Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A Massachusetts campaign has officially turned in a final batch of signatures to put a psychedelics legalization initiative on the state\u2019s November ballot after lawmakers declined to enact the reform legislatively\u2014and activists say they\u2019re confident they\u2019ve secured enough petitions to qualify. After previously turning in an initial round of signaturesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":76697,"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\/76696"}],"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=76696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76698,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76696\/revisions\/76698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Massachusetts Campaign Turns In Final Signatures To Put Psychedelics Legalization On The November Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"