“Massachusetts has decriminalized more cities than any other state, six, because we keep it real.”
Say it three times …
Salem psilocybin, Salem psilocybin, Salem psilocybin.
Poof! You’re a mushroom.
In fact, you can now legally be anything you want to be there, since the North Shore city is the latest municipality in the state to recognize the therapeutic potential of psilocybin—particularly in the context of how psychedelic drugs can help people struggling with opioid addiction—and to openly “deprioritize” related prosecutions. The Salem News reports:
The council voted 9-0 last week to adopt a five-part resolution that establishes that “the investigation and arrest of adult persons for cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, and/or possessing psilocybin-containing fungi shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the city of Salem.”
The resolution came out of two City Council public health meetings, where doctors, therapists, law enforcement, and others dug into the idea of legalizing specific plant medicines. That included Salem resident and endocannabinoid pharmacologist Miyabe Shields and Salem police Chief Lucas Miller, who both worked with Ward 7 Councilor Andy Varela in drafting the approved resolution.
There are five “commitments” that come with the resolution. They’re for Salem to be actively:
- Calling on the Essex County district attorney to “deprioritize the prosecution” of people taking advantage of “psychedelic-assisted therapeutic services, possession, sharing or cultivation of psilocybin-containing fungi and the use or possession without the intent to distribute”
- Maintaining that the “arrest of adult persons for using or possessing psilocybin-containing fungi shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority for the city”
- Maintaining that no city department, board, agency, etc. “should use city funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for the use and possession of psilocybin-containing fungi by adults”
- Maintaining that “the investigation and arrest of adult persons for cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, and/or possessing psilocybin-containing fungi shall be amongst the lowest law enforcement priority”
- Establishing that the resolution, once effective, doesn’t “authorize or enable any of the following activities: commercial sales or manufacturing of psilocybin-containing fungi, possessing or distributing these materials on school grounds, driving under the influence of these materials; or public disturbance”
Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, a “grassroots community group that educates our neighbors on the safe, spiritual use of psychedelics like psilocybin ‘magic’ mushrooms,” was key behind the Salem resolution. BSNM has helped inform Talking Joints Memo readers on the various initiatives around psychedelics they are currently involved in, and said the following about this most recent win:
This victory honors those struggling with depression, addiction, and neurological diseases these plant medicines alleviate. … This victory is for our partners in harm reduction and treatment who pour their souls into helping their communities in shambles from a 50 year war on people. … This victory is for the veterans, and first responders, traumatized by violence and intergenerational trauma. This victory happened because ordinary people are speaking up and educating the people they love.
Massachusetts has decriminalized more cities than any other state, six, because we keep it real. We stand in opposition to the corporations trying to charge people thousands for these gifts of nature. Our state bill, An Act Relative to Plant Medicine, will restore our right to grow and share too so take action with us.
Organizers also thanked local volunteers for “those cold nights canvassing,” as well as the city’s Healthy Streets Outreach Program and receptive politicians for their help. Learn more about their cause and which cities and towns the group plans to enlighten next at baystatersnm.org.
