Dried psilocybe cubensis mushrooms (WikiMedia Commons)

Phillip Smith | September 18, 2018

Denver could essentially legalize psychedelic mushrooms by next spring if a group of local activists has its way. But they have a few hurdles to overcome first.

This week, members of Denver for Psilocybin handed in to city officials a pair of municipal initiatives aimed at removing penalties for possessing and consuming the fungi, which contain the psychoactive ingredient psilocybin. That’s the first step in a process that could see the issue put before voters in the May 2019 local election.

One measure, the Denver Psychoactive Mushroom Decriminalization Initiative, reflects the activists’ maximum program; the other, the Denver Psychoactive Mushroom Enforcement Deprioritization Initiative, is a less ambitious backstop.

Both initiatives would make enforcement of laws against magic mushrooms a low law enforcement priority by adopting language that would “prohibit the city from spending resources to impose criminal penalties for the personal use and personal possession of psychoactive mushrooms.” Under both initiatives, the sale of magic mushrooms would remain illegal.

The initiatives differ in two important respects. The broader one allows for the “personal possessions, use, and propagation” of magic mushrooms; the backstop version only allows for possession and use, not propagation. And the broader version contains no limits on possession, while the backstop would limit possession to two ounces.

Kevin Matthews, campaign manager for Denver for Psilocybin, told Westword he hoped the broader measure would pass muster with both city officials and voters, but that allowing propagation may be a bridge too far.

“It’s a natural right. It’s a human right. This one is our Hail Mary victory shot,” Matthews said. “It’s more a matter of public opinion,” he said of the two-pronged approach. “Are people ready to accept that people are already propagating?”

The Denver City Council now has a week to schedule a comment and review hearing led by Council Executive Director Leon Mason and Assistant City Attorney Troy Bratton. While the hearing is open to the public, there is no opportunity for public comment.

If the council approves, the initiatives then go to the Denver Election Division, which will have three days to decide whether to accept or reject them. Denver for Psilocybin had earlier versions of the initiatives rejected by the Elections Division but hopes it has addressed those issues with the new versions. If approved by the Elections Division, the group will then have to come up with some 5,000 valid voter signatures by January to qualify for the May ballot. They are confident that if they can get the measures on the ballot, they can win.

“I am extremely optimistic. I think we’re gonna win. I think we’re going to pass this thing,” he says. Even if voters don’t side with the group, “simply getting on the ballot will be a victory.”

Denver isn’t the only place where moves to legalize or decriminalize magic mushrooms are afoot, but it may be the first place voters get a chance to weigh in. In Oregon, activists aiming at 2020 are working on an initiative that would legalize and regulate the therapeutic use of psilocybin, while just to the south, the California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative campaign tried to get their measure on the 2018 ballot, but came up short on signatures. They will be back.

Magic mushrooms remain illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. But so was marijuana when Coloradans voted to legalize it in 2012. And here we are.

This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license from StopTheDrugWar.org and was first published here.

Tags: Denver, Denver for Psilocybin, Denver Psychoactive Mushroom Decriminalization Initiative, magic mushrooms, mushrooms, psilocybin, psychedelic mushrooms, psychedelics

Marijuana Policy Project | September 19, 2018

WASHINGTON, DC — The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) announced Wednesday it is endorsing Measure 3, the initiative to legalize marijuana for adults in North Dakota and expunge past marijuana-related convictions.

MPP is the nation’s largest organization dedicated exclusively to marijuana policy, and it played leading roles in the successful legalization initiative efforts in Colorado, Alaska, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada. It is the latest organization to throw its support behind Legalize ND, the local grassroots campaign that qualified Measure 3 for the November ballot.

“The Marijuana Policy Project supports Measure 3 and strongly encourages North Dakotans to vote in favor of this important initiative,” said MPP Deputy Director Matthew Schweich. “North Dakota’s current marijuana prohibition laws are ineffective and wasteful, causing more harm to consumers and to the community than marijuana itself. Adults should not be punished for using a product that is objectively less harmful than alcohol, and law enforcement officials’ time and resources would be better spent addressing serious crimes. Once marijuana is a legal product for adults, it can be regulated and controlled similarly to alcohol. It is time for North Dakota to join the growing number of states that have ended prohibition and taken new, more sensible approaches to controlling marijuana.”

MPP will assist Legalize ND by offering guidance and support with strategy and fundraising, as well as by mobilizing its supporters in North Dakota and around the country.

“We’re thrilled to have MPP’s support, and we look forward to working with them in the weeks leading up to Election Day,” said Legalize ND Chair David Owen. “With their help, we’ll continue to educate voters about the benefits of legalization and the harms of prohibition.”

Measure 3 would remove penalties for possession and cultivation of marijuana by adults 21 and older. It would also establish a process for sealing criminal records of individuals with prior marijuana convictions. In 2016, North Dakotans approved a medical marijuana ballot initiative, Measure 5. State regulators have been slow to implement it, and dispensaries are not expected to open until 2019.

“MPP is proud to throw its support behind this local grassroots effort,” Schweich said. “There is clearly a strong desire for change in North Dakota, and since state officials have not taken on this issue, it is up to the people to get it done. Voters will have a chance to make their voices heard this November, and we hope they will use it to say ‘yes’ on Measure 3.”

MPP is supporting several ballot initiative efforts this year, including Prop. 1 in Michigan, which would legalize and regulate marijuana for adult use, and Prop. 2 in Utah, which would legalize and regulate marijuana for medical use. Nine states and the District of Columbia have already approved laws making marijuana legal for adults, and eight of those states also regulate the commercial production and sale of marijuana for adult use.

Tags: ballot initiatives, Election 2018, Legalize ND, Legalize North Dakota, LegalizeND, Marijuana Policy Project, MPP, North Dakota, North Dakota marijuana legalization

Phillip Smith | September 19, 2018

As North Dakotans prepare to head to the polls in November to vote on the Measure 3 marijuana legalization initiative, they rely on their state government to come up with an estimate of what it will cost taxpayers. It’s not just this initiative—state law mandates that voters be informed of the potential budgetary impacts of any measure on the ballot.

But for voters to accurately assess the cost of a measure, the cost estimates must reflect reality. That’s not the case with the cost report issued last week by the state’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and approved in a party-line vote over the objections of Democratic lawmakers.

The OMB report put the cost of implementing the marijuana measure at $6.7 million, but two-thirds of that figure is to pay for a program not mandated in the initiative. OMB said it would take $2.2 million in clerical costs to expunge some 18,000 marijuana arrest records, as the initiative requires, but that it would also cost $4.4 million for a youth education campaign that the state Health Department argued would be necessary and the salaries of two full-time employees to run it for the next four years.

The Health Department may think such a campaign is necessary, but the initiative itself does not require—or even mention—any such campaign, and to include the Health Department’s wish list in the measure’s fiscal impact statement is just plain dishonest. That didn’t stop Republican lawmakers from voting to approve it.

Democrats tried to stop them. House Minority Leader Corey Mock (D-Grand Forks) offered an amendment to approve the fiscal impact statement but omit the Health Department’s figures, with other costs to be determined.

“This does not lead to a $6.7 million fiscal impact. It’s a $2.2 million fiscal impact, with more that’s likely to happen but it cannot be determined,” Mock said. “It will cost more than $2.2 million. We just don’t know how much.”

The amendment failed on a 10-5 party line vote. The Legislative Management Committee then approved by the same margin a motion by House Majority Leader Al Carlson (R-Fargo) to accept the fiscal impact statement with the Health Department’s cost estimate included.

Sen. Erin Oban (D-Bismarck) told the Bismarck Tribune after the vote that the fiscal impact statement as passed amounted to a lie.

“There seems to be a disagreement among this committee about what we want versus what the language in the measure actually says,” Oban said. “I think there was universal agreement, probably around this table, about wanting, if Measure 3 passed, an education campaign from the health department about the impacts of marijuana, especially on youth, for prevention purposes. But the measure does not require that. To me, it is lying to claim that Measure 3 required that because it didn’t.”

One Republican lawmaker, Sen. Jerry Klein (R-Fessenden), defended including the Health Department costs on rather dubious grounds.

“Until the measures are passed, and the Legislature and all the agencies can dig in and put an actual cost on it, I think our job has been simply to approve something that somebody said might cost this,” Klein told the Tribune.

The Health Department argued that because it has a responsibility to protect the health and welfare of North Dakotans, the educational campaign would be warranted, but again, it is not mandated in the initiative itself, and the Health Department doesn’t exactly have a great record when it comes to marijuana measures.

As North Dakota columnist and political blogger Rob Port pointed out in a column laying into the shady cost estimates, the Health Department was way, way off in its estimate of the costs of the successful 2016 medical marijuana initiative there.

“What people should keep in mind is that two years ago when the health department presented their information on what they estimated to be the cost of medical marijuana if it passed they said $8.7 million,” he quoted one lawmaker as telling him after the vote. “For fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, their actual cost was $363,000.”

That inflated figure didn’t stop voters from approving medical marijuana in 2016. Perhaps the inflated figure this year won’t stop voters from approving marijuana legalization in 2018, but it would be better if North Dakota Republicans could just be honest about the costs.

This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license from StopTheDrugWar.org and was first published here.

Tags: Al Carlson, ballot initiatives, Election 2018, Jerry Klein, Legalize ND, Legalize North Dakota, LegalizeND, MPP, North Dakota, North Dakota marijuana legalization, Office of Management and Budget

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Tuesday, February 19, 2019 | Curated by host Shea Gunther

// NJ edges closer to legalizing recreational cannabis after breakthrough on taxing (Marijuana Business Daily)

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// Marijuana-themed Cheba Hut opening more sub joints in Colorado across the country (Denver Post)

// ND House bill to expand conditions for medical marijuana qualifications passes (KFYR TV NBC)

// Bill to allow medical marijuana in schools passes New Mexico Senate (KRQE News)

// Proposed bill would let first-time marijuana offenders have conviction dismissed (East Idaho News)

// New York City councilman wants companies to stop testing for marijuana (Fox 8 Cleveland)

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