With early voting underway for the Nov. 3 election, DC voters are deciding whether to make “magic mushrooms” and other psychedelic plants and fungi the lowest enforcement priority among all crimes for the Metropolitan Police Department. Cities around the country — most notably Denver and Oakland, California — have recently voted in favor of similar initiatives. If passed, DC’s Initiative 81 would largely affect those who wish to use entheogens recreationally and medicinally without fear of harsh punishment.
The initiative would create a non-binding public call upon DC’s attorney general and the U.S. attorney for DC to cease prosecution of criminal charges involving entheogens. Initiative 81 wouldn’t change the legal status of entheogens or alter existing penalties.
The DC Line spoke to two psychiatrists at The George Washington University, Mikhail Kogan and Daniel Lieberman, and the spokesperson for Decriminalize Nature DC, Melissa Lavasani, to answer some questions about Initiative 81.
What are psychedelic plants?
Psychedelic plants, or entheogens, are plants that have been used in religious ceremonies since prehistory. “We don’t exactly know how they work in the brain, but they seem to stimulate a certain kind of serotonin receptor that makes the brain more open to change,” Lieberman said.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are currently conducting clinical trials using a synthetically produced active ingredient identical to the one found in magic mushrooms in an attempt to treat certain mental health issues like depression or drug addiction. For example, Lieberman said, magic mushrooms might help alleviate depression in terminal cancer patients dealing with the difficulty of their own death. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked approval of the ingredient — psilocybin — because of the trials’ promising results.
How could Initiative 81 benefit DC residents?
The initiative is an opportunity to educate DC residents about options to treat mental health, said Lavasani, whose group got the initiative onto DC’s ballot.
“Whether it is trauma in underserved communities, veterans with PTSD, or mothers with postpartum, there are options to treat mental health outside of the current medical model and people should have access to plant medicines,” Lavasani said in a text message. “The large and growing amount [of] research at Johns Hopkins is continuing to prove … that this is a viable option to treat society’s most pressing mental health issues.
“[The science] is still preliminary but it’s overwhelmingly positive and our current healthcare system is not equipped to deal with the mental health crisis our country is about to face,” Lavasani continued, referring to hospitals that are overwhelmed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Medical Society of DC hasn’t released much on the issue, but in February did highlight the possibility that DC voters would be voting on a ballot measure: “The use of psychedelics as a medical treatment have some limited medical support but lacks robust definitive study. MSDC and its partners will be watching carefully if the ballot initiative is approved,” its statement reads, with a link to a research paper on the National Institutes for Health website.
What are the risks of psychedelics?
Those with preexisting or undiagnosed psychiatric illness should exercise caution with psychedelics, Lieberman said. Taking psychedelic plants could bring out illnesses like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia in a “slightly unpleasant” way, he said. Some might experience time dilation and feel as though the trip might not end. Others might experience dramatic mood swings or vivid hallucinations.
More commonly, however, it is possible for people to have bad trips. There are two components that affect how a person responds to a psychedelic: “set” and “setting.” The set is the emotional preparation with which someone goes into the experience, while the setting is the physical environment where one takes the psychedelic. Therapeutic administration of psychedelics aims to control both the set and the setting, providing several psychotherapy sessions to prepare the patient and a safe setting to take the psychedelic. On the other hand, when the plants are taken recreationally, the outcome of the trip is less predictable.
Lieberman, though in favor of preventing those who use psychedelic plants from facing jail time, is hesitant to throw his full weight behind the initiative.
“As a physician I would rather have these drugs being used in a therapeutic, medical environment, and so I am a little bit uncomfortable with it,” he said. “On the other hand, I think that people should not go to jail for experimenting with these things that are not the most dangerous things in the world — it’s certainly safer than things like cocaine. I just don’t know, I have mixed feelings about it.”
Both Kogan and Lieberman were quick to dismiss critics’ claims that psychedelics are addictive. In most cases when deaths have occurred after taking magic mushrooms, people have overdosed from recreational use, or had underlying conditions that responded poorly to the plants.
What is the rest of the country doing?
Oakland’s city council passed legislation similar to Initiative 81 in June of last year, while Denver voters decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms a month prior to that. Earlier this year, the city council in Santa Cruz, California, decriminalized psychoactive plants. Denver only decriminalized the use of psychedelic mushrooms, while Oakland’s legislation is much broader, effectively decriminalizing all entheogenic plants.
Oregon voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to decriminalize psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
“Oakland just passed some legislation that is focused on a community model where a non-profit who is certified by the government is having therapy sessions with people, it is community-based,” Lavasani said. “Then you’ve got Oregon, who has a ballot initiative coming up in November that is focusing on a full integration into a medical model, so there will be psilocybin clinics all over the state.
“So I think [with] DC it will be interesting to see what kind of reform comes next for us,” she continued. “My assumption is it will look something like a hybrid of what Oakland and Oregon are trying to do.”
Lavasani said that research involving entheogenic plants indicates “there is real and tangible, therapeutic, medical use for these substances.” In addition to depression and addiction, researchers are looking at the possibility of using entheogens to treat PTSD, migraines, eating disorders and Alzheimer’s disease.
“We have our neighbors at Johns Hopkins leading the charge on all this research and I encourage those who are interested in seeing some of it to go to our website.”
For further reading on Initiative 81
- Reason Foundation: “Washington D.C. Ballot Initiative Analysis: Initiative 81 (2020)”
- Washington Post: “Mayor Bowser says she’ll vote against ballot question on psychedelic mushrooms”
- WTOP: “‘Magic mushroom’ supporters in DC gear up for long fight”
- DCist: “DCision 2020: Here’s The Deal With The D.C. Ballot Measure About Magic Mushrooms”
- Washington Post: “D.C. voters to weigh in on ‘magic mushroom’ decriminalization after months-long campaign”
- Slate: “Why D.C. and Oregon Should Vote Yes on Psychedelics”
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