Massachusetts Inches Away From Decriminalizing Psychedelics As Forth City Approves Reform

On Wednesday night, members of the Easthampton City Council passed a resolution that would decriminalize certain entheogenic substances and other drugs, Marijuana Moment reported, making it the fourth Massachusetts city to approve a psychedelics policy change.

Easthampton follows Cambridge, Sommerville, and Northampton in decriminalizing the hallucinogens such as psilocybin, ayahuasca, and ibogaine, to name a few.

The measure, which passed in a 7-0 vote with two abstentions, was introduced by Council Member At-Large Owen Zaret.

“I’m grateful to the Council for being so forward-thinking about a cutting edge topic,” Zaret told Marijuana Moment. “There were some hard concepts to undo for some of us. This is a step forward to helping people have access to effective therapies and also halting unnecessary arrests and incarceration.”

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The resolution is non-binding and does not require local police to deprioritize enforcement of laws prohibiting psychedelics.

The legislation also says that the Council “maintains that the use and possession of all controlled substances should be understood first and primarily as an issue of public health by city departments, agencies, boards, commissions, and all employees of the city.”

Zaret told Marijuana Moment that in order to avoid substance misuse, “a really aggressive campaign” is needed that would “highlight the fact that this is a public health issue,” in addition to being more “aggressive about how we’re treating that.”

Photo: Courtesy of Johannes Plenio from Pexels