Year-in-Review: Psychedelic Advances in 2021
Part 1: Decriminalization
As the Utah Bee looks forward, we take a look back at the past-year’s advances for psychedelic use and acceptance in the United States. These advances include major activity on both legal and medical fronts. This article covers legal advances. The next article will cover medical advances.
On the legal front, momentum accelerated for legal accommodation of psychedelic use. In December, Port Townsend, WA, joined the growing ranks of cities that have decided to decriminalize psychedelic substances. Decriminalization means that cities declare enforcement of laws against psychedelic substances to be the “lowest priority,” moving use to be considered an issue of public health, not criminal justice. Many decriminalization determinations, including Port Townsend’s, also include a ban on funding enforcement activities related to psychedelics.
The decriminalization movement started in Denver in 2019, with a successful citizens initiative. Also in that year, Oakland became the first city to have the city council decriminalize psychedelics. Since then, psychedelic substances have been decriminalized in an additional 9 cities (including Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Detroit), 1 Michigan county, the District of Columbia, and the entire state of Oregon.
And the future looks even brighter. Ballot initiatives are being pursued in Colorado, California, and Virginia. Legislative efforts to decriminalize psychedelics are advancing in California (where a previous bill made it through the Senate and 2 house committees, before being pulled) and Massachusetts.
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Texas and Connecticut passed laws mandating the states to study the of psychedelic substances for medical use. Similar bills are being considered in Florida and New York.
On the federal level, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) continues to build support for her bill to improve research opportunities for psychedelic substances by removing War-on-Drugs-era restrictions on federal funding. Another bill—the Drug Reform Policy Act—seeks to end incarceration threats for individuals possessing personal use amounts. Both federal bills face a difficult path in the short term.