
Santa Cruz decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms - lelf
https://abcnews.go.com/US/santa-cruz-decriminalizes-psychedelic-mushrooms/story?id=68611065
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krohling
Super excited to see this. If you live in California please head on over to
[http://www.decrimca.org/](http://www.decrimca.org/) We're working to get
state wide decriminalization on the ballot in November and we need signatures!
If you buy a button ($5) they'll send you a petition sheet. There are also
signature locations and volunteers in every county in the state.

~~~
tayo42
> SEC. 3. PURPOSE AND INTENT.

>

> The purpose of this article is to decriminalize the personal possession,
> storage, use, cultivation, manufacturing, distribution in personal
> possession amounts without profit, transport, and consumption of psilocybin
> mushrooms and the chemical compounds contained in them for any person over
> the age of 18, or for any person younger than 18 with parental or guardian
> consent by amending California Health and Safety Codes HSC § 11 390 & 11391.

I'm confused, whats the difference between legalization and decriminalization
then. This sounds like legalization to me? Decriminalizaton i thought was
making it a low priority to law enforcement which some places already did?

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ac29
This allows "distribution in personal possession amounts without profit".

Legalization would imply that some entity or entities were legally allowed to
sell at commercial scale to the general public at a profit.

~~~
awb
Alcohol is legal, but you can't sell it legally without a liquor license and
those can be restricted in number and limited in scope (in MA you can't sell
liquor on Sundays).

~~~
superuser0
That last part hasn't been true in quite some time. Since 2003, alcohol sales
have been allowed on Sunday in Massachusetts.

~~~
awb
Sorry - I moved away around that time!

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XPKBandMaidCzun
I just wished their was fairer representation online of impact on people's
lives when drugs get brought up. I never done drugs. But still, I suffered
thanks to people who chose drugs as a way cope - and it's soul sucking.

The problem with decriminalizing/legalizing recreational drugs is its
interpreted as officials of the state validating drugs as a coping skill.

In almost all cases, getting high is maladaptive coping style.

My anecdote from being raised by substance abusers: Makes you think you're
smart, maybe even makes you look competent to other people. Until you don't
have the drug anymore, in which case you're left with an anxious person who
can't cope with difficult circumstances.

It's excruciating to have to endure loved ones who become dependent on
substances. It saps the energy out of you to deal with. Their brain is rewired
to get high - at the expense of their social connections, family, reputation,
and so on.

Suffering and enduring a drug abuser is a silent pain. The incentive for users
to get high and for rehab clinics to make money show why the conversation is
so lopsided.

~~~
zelly
> Until you don't have the drug anymore, in which case you're left with an
> anxious person who can't cope with difficult circumstances.

That's where you're mistaken. Psychedelics aren't for escaping reality.
They're for facing it.

On heroin/meth/cannabis/alcohol, you take it and feel good, forgetting about
stuff like going to work or feeding your baby.

On LSD/mushrooms, you are more likely to curl up in a ball in the corner of
the room crying than you are to experience euphoria. Nobody takes that stuff
for "fun".

~~~
toomanybeersies
I completely disagree.

I've used psychedelics plenty of times as a form of escapism. I tend to stop
worrying about reality when I'm 500 µg of LSD deep. I also use it frequently
for fun, in fact I can't remember the last time I didn't use it for "fun".

~~~
suby
How comparable is LSD to Mushrooms?

~~~
pmoriarty
On the street, mushrooms have a reputation for being much more gentle than
LSD, and LSD is supposed to be more pushy (ie. LSD will make you face your
issues, while mushrooms might just invite you to do so). But it's questionable
how strong a dose of mushrooms those who maintain it's more gentle than LSD
actually took.

Also, a long time ago I read of studies that showed that even experienced
users couldn't tell the difference between all the various major types of
psychedelics when they were administered in a double-blind fashion.

Something else to consider is that, as I've mentioned in another comment, a
lot of what's sold as LSD on the black market actually isn't, and most people
don't test their drugs. So much of what you read these days about self-
reported LSD use is probably actually about other substances.

~~~
wutbrodo
Yea, I've never noticed much of a difference between the two. I'm bolstered in
this belief by the fact that everybody I know has a confident, contradictory
opinion about how exactly they're different from each other.

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01100011
Great. Would also be great if we could just get the spores legalized at the
state level. California, Georgia and Idaho prohibit possession of the _spores_
of magic mushrooms. In CA this is especially ridiculous, given that the
mushrooms have lived here longer than the state has existed.

In many other states, you can walk into any head shop and buy a mushroom kit
containing spores. Not in CA. It makes no sense.

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alasdair_
I used to live in London at a time when the fact that mushrooms were
technically legal seemed to suddenly come to light. Oxford street was full of
places selling them, as were various markets. There was lots of branding and
marketing that appeared as if from nowhere.

Honestly the kind of overnight switch from not being visible anywhere, to
seeming to be on every street corner reminds me of being in SF when Lime and
the other scooter startups blanketed the city seemingly overnight.

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salgernon
UC Santa Cruz is home to the Greatful Dead archive[1] and more recently for
Hunter S. Thompson[2]. And they do, like, engineering too, man.

[1]
[https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/gratefuldeadarchive](https://guides.library.ucsc.edu/gratefuldeadarchive)
[2] [https://news.ucsc.edu/2018/11/hunter-thompson-
collection.htm...](https://news.ucsc.edu/2018/11/hunter-thompson-
collection.html)

~~~
asdff
ucsc is the only college I know that will let you live as an unrestricted
hippy in an RV on a lot on campus, or just in a tent off in the woods.

~~~
Balgair
Go Slugs!

The astrophysics PhD program is _very_ good. Top 40 worldwide physics and
earth sciences undergrad programs too.

The forest hippies are mostly harmless, though they will try to expand your
mind and sneak into the dorm showers from time to time.

Is the totem pole still by the cat graveyard? What a great view up there of SC
on Friday nights as the smoke, err, fog rolled in about the drum circles.

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KhoomeiK
One of the volunteers at Decrim Santa Cruz here. AMA!

~~~
some-guy
Congrats, I'm very excited to see how this affects the greater movement.

As a former Santa Cruz resident of ~4 years at UCSC, do you think this will
affect enforcement at the local level? Living there between 2010-2014, there
didn't seem to be much drug enforcement by the police at all, at least not for
possession.

~~~
KhoomeiK
Yeah, I don't think it'll change anyone's day to day life very significantly
as enforcement is pretty lax already. It's more important in the sense that
it's a step in the direction of legalization, which I think will have genuine
society-changing effects. There will likely be a boom in psychedelic
treatments for mental and physical health when they're legalized on a state
level, and that can't happen till everyone's comfortable with them being
decriminalized.

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earthwrldshaman
"Psychedelic capital of the world decriminalizes psychedelic mushrooms"

~~~
elevenoh
There's certainly some ambient magic in the air in SC.

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ptah
> "Entheogenic plants offer many in our community a way out of the addictive
> pharmaceuticals known as opioids. People came forward at last night’s
> meeting telling of the beneficial effects of how these plants changed their
> lives."

that's an interesting take. could the opioid epidemic be tied directly to
psychedelic prohibition?

~~~
radiorental
I think the opioid epidemic is pretty much tied to the over prescription of
opioids and the abusive practices of opioid manufacturers.

Psychedelics have been banned long before the epidemic started, additionally,
countries that also have a ban in place do not also have epidemics.

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bproven
Cool! Denver legalized it May 2019 as well...

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elevenoh
Love this.

Where's next?

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itqwertz
afk brb... heading to Santa Cruz for ... research purposes.

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m463
I always wonder what unintended consequences measures like this will have. (I
am not opposed to it)

I remember a long time ago Montana fought the 55 mph (and later higher ones)
imposed by federal pressure. Their laws favored "reasonable and prudent" over
absolute limits. (How wonderful to choose personal responsibility)

Then out-of-state drivers from car clubs started driving to Montana and doing
high-speed drives across the state.

Maybe that was why Montana enacted actual limits and fines later on.

~~~
Baeocystin
>Maybe that was why Montana enacted actual limits and fines later on.

No one in Montana cared. 'reasonable and prudent' was struck down due to a
simple court case where a defendant appealed his reckless driving conviction
because he thought the law was too vague.

[https://law.justia.com/cases/montana/supreme-
court/1998/b182...](https://law.justia.com/cases/montana/supreme-
court/1998/b1822668-90ed-4f1f-9d46-cc9be810cf87.html)

The Montana Supreme Court agreed with his assessment, and as a result, a
numeric speed limit was instituted.

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quirkafleeg3
To quote Gene Hunt from Life on Mars: "Drugs eh, what's the point? They make
you talk funny, they make you walk funny, they make you see things that aren't
there. My nan got all that for free when she had a stroke."

In all seriousness, I think people who use drugs like this have something
missing in their life. Instead of getting hopped up on mushrooms, why not look
at your life and work out what you are using mushrooms as a subsitute for.

~~~
javajosh
Okay, lets say you're right. What does that imply about all the other things
people do? Why are you watching movies - what is that a substitute for? Why
are you exercising so much - what do you have to hide from yourself?

Given that you could (and should) ask these questions legitimately, why focus
on recreational psychadelics? I think the answer is that you've internalized a
particular cultural story about drugs, and you probably have Nancy Reagan to
thank for that.

Being against mushrooms seems particularly odd, since every human being on the
planet involuntarily falls unconscious and hallucinates for hours every single
night, including you. In the hierarchy of damaging escapist behavior, it's
pretty low I think (far lower certainly than say, Facebook or Twitter usage).

~~~
rofo1
I know a lot of drug users and they all do it to kill their pain. No
exceptions.

And they all progress towards harder drugs. They either progress or stop doing
drugs. Nobody started doing drugs directly shooting heroin.

Comparing psychedelics to sleep is just laughable.

~~~
Infinitesimus
Pretty small anecdote though.

There is some truth in the Buddhist truth of "Dukkha" (that life is
suffering).

Most of us are simply seeking ways to enjoy the ride and have a meaningful
existence while we're here. Some people try mind-altering substances in small
doses to explore different states of existence, cope with pain, celebrate,
meditate, etc.

We all do things to numb our pain don't we? Medication, activities, work,
family, hobbies, art, music, whatever.

I believe legalizing psychedelics will give us a chance to better study and
understand what precautions we need to give to people curious.

~~~
rofo1
I disagree with that "life is suffering, so lets do whatever we want".

Also I have no pain (luckily) in my life. I've never had other than when
family members died. And I enjoy every day without doing drugs, alcohol or
something like that.

In my opinion (and I am aware this is harsh) most of the problems people claim
they have are pure nonsense and incredibly trivial. They want to blow them out
of proportion so they can add some meaning to their life. It's like trying to
deal with boredom in the most destructive way imaginable.

In my mind, the only non-trivial problems are generally health issues (death
of a loved one etc.)

What kind of pain do you have that you need mind-altering substances?

We are at the height of our civilizations, we have billions of things to do
and billions of hobbies to choose from and research, and explore and.. I don't
know what else. We live better than ever, and better than kings used to live.

I can't understand how someone that is healthy, has money to live life
somewhat comfortably needs to do these drugs to survive.

