{"id":77217,"date":"2024-08-07T10:16:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T18:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/two-massachusetts-city-councils-endorse-statewide-psychedelics-legalization-ballot-measure\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T19:47:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T03:47:46","slug":"two-massachusetts-city-councils-endorse-statewide-psychedelics-legalization-ballot-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/two-massachusetts-city-councils-endorse-statewide-psychedelics-legalization-ballot-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Massachusetts City Councils Endorse Statewide Psychedelics Legalization Ballot Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThese treatments have proven to be a helpful way to treat serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety and PTSD.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jack Gorsline, Filter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Supporters of a Massachusetts psychedelic decriminalization and legalization measure<\/a> scored a big win on the night of August 5, as Cambridge City Council voted to endorse it. The measure is due to be put to Massachusetts voters as Question 4 on the November 5 ballot.<\/p>\n

The formal endorsement by city leadership makes Harvard\u2019s hometown the second Massachusetts municipality to officially back the statewide \u200bbill. It comes just a few weeks after Somerville\u2019s council voted<\/a> resoundingly in favor of endorsing the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

The two cities previously passed trailblazing measures making psychedelics the lowest priority for municipal law enforcement. Those 2021 moves had a snowball effect, with an additional six cities in Massachusetts\u2014Salem<\/a>, Northampton<\/a>, Easthampton<\/a>, Amherst<\/a>, Provincetown<\/a> and Medford<\/a>\u2014since passing similar local measures of their own.<\/p>\n

Now, the two Boston-adjacent cities\u2019 support for the statewide measure could once again serve as a catalyst for others to follow their lead.<\/p>\n

The proposed measure would decriminalize personal use, possession, home cultivation and personal distribution of psilocybin, psilocyn, mescaline, ibogaine and DMT at the state level. Additionally, the bill would create a regulatory structure for psychedelic-assisted therapy, similar to the state\u2019s battle-scarred<\/a> Cannabis Control Commission.<\/p>\n

The Cambridge City Council endorsement vote was introduced during the August 5 meeting by Vice Mayor Marc McGovern, who emphasized increasing access to next-generation mental health care options for local residents.<\/p>\n

The motion to endorse the measure ultimately passed in an 8\u20131 vote, with one councilor absent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese treatments have proven to be a helpful way to treat serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety and PTSD,\u201d Councilor McGovern said in an August 6 press release. \u201cWe have a mental health crisis and want licensed clinicians to have access to tools to help veterans, first-responders, anyone else who is struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am eternally grateful to Vice Mayor McGovern and his colleagues for standing up for suffering veterans, hospice patients, and others who have waited long enough for more effective treatments,\u201d Graham Moore, educational outreach director for the ballot campaign, told Filter.<\/p>\n

Moore, a lifetime Cambridge resident, made an eye-catching speech to Somerville City Council prior to that earlier vote. His psychedelic advocacy, he said, was spurred in part by having lost his best friend to suicide, and in part by his own use of psilocybin to treat obsessive\u2013compulsive disorder (OCD) in consultation with a psychiatrist.<\/p>\n

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The statewide measure\u2014titled An Act Relative to the Taxation and Regulation of Natural Psychedelic Substances\u2014is backed by New Approach PAC, the group behind previous statewide psychedelic reform campaigns in Oregon and Colorado. New Approach is somewhat of a spin-off of the Marijuana Policy Project, the advocacy group that led cannabis legalization efforts in Massachusetts over a decade ago. Just as with those efforts, political strategy powerhouse Dewey Square Group has been brought in to advise the psychedelic campaign\u2014now formally known as \u201cYes on 4.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign hasn\u2019t been all smooth sailing. The 2023 arrival of DC-based New Approach PAC in Massachusetts was criticized by some psychedelic groups in the state for an apparent lack of consultation with local advocates.<\/p>\n

And in November 2023, Yes on 4\u2014then known as Mass for Mental Health Options\u2014was forced to re-gather nearly 12,000 signatures after a large portion of the first batch was ruled invalid. The forms used by campaign canvassers had been printed with unaffiliated labor union logos.<\/p>\n

There are also prominent critics within the psychedelic community of the substance of the measure. These include Dr. Mason Marks, of Harvard\u2019s Petrie-Flom Center, who has strong reservations about a therapeutic-use regulatory structure similar to the New Approach-backed models implemented in Oregon and Colorado.<\/p>\n

Those concerns include potential high costs for recipients under a tightly regulated therapeutic model limiting access, as seen in Oregon<\/a>. He\u2019s also concerned that the model would block the inclusion and remuneration of Indigenous and traditional healers. And he\u2019s called for the inclusion of employment protections for people using psychedelics outside of work hours.<\/p>\n

Yet some prominent psychedelic advocates in Massachusetts are backing the measure. They include Jamie Morey, founder of Parents for Plant Medicine, who now serves as community engagement director for the Yes on 4 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled that the city of Cambridge has endorsed the ballot measure,\u201d she told Filter, \u201cand hope others will follow suit in recognizing that we desperately need new treatment options to address the mental health care crisis affecting families across the Commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge other communities and individuals across the state to be guided by compassion, logic, and evidence-based research on the safety and efficacy of psychedelic therapy,\u201d she continued, \u201cand give our suffering citizens the right to heal by voting yes on 4.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cambridge\u2019s decision was also applauded by Cambridge Biotherapies, a company that offers treatments including esketamine (Spravato)<\/a> and that lent significant support to the earlier local decriminalization efforts in Cambridge and Somerville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis measure represents a significant advancement in expanding access to transformative mental health treatments,\u201d CFO and COO Brendan O\u2019Connor, who formerly cofounded Decriminalize Nature Massachusetts, told Filter. \u201cCambridge Biotherapies remains dedicated to supporting the community as the need for safe, experienced psychedelic-supported healing spaces grows.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published by\u00a0Filter<\/a>, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, or sign up for its\u00a0newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Massachusetts Psychedelics Legalization Campaign Seeks To Build On Lessons Learned In Oregon And Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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

The post Two Massachusetts City Councils Endorse Statewide Psychedelics Legalization Ballot Measure<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThese treatments have proven to be a helpful way to treat serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety and PTSD.\u201d By Jack Gorsline, Filter Supporters of a Massachusetts psychedelic decriminalization and legalization measure scored a big win on the night of August 5, as Cambridge City Council voted to endorseContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77217"}],"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\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77218,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77217\/revisions\/77218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}