A group seeking to legalize certain psychedelics has taken the initial steps towards getting an initiative on the general election ballot in 2024.
A nonprofit political committee called Massachusetts for Mental Health Options has submitted paperwork with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance indicating that they intend to work towards putting an initiative before voters next year.
The initiative will “expand mental health treatment options in Massachusetts by providing new pathways to access natural psychedelic medicine therapy”, including “creating access to natural psychedelic medicine therapy and removing criminal penalties for personal possession of these medicines.”
Although the exact text of the initiative is not yet available, it’s expected it will share many elements with Colorado’s Proposition 122, passed by voters in 2022. That measure legalized the personal possession, cultivation and transport of psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline. The initiative also created the Regulated Natural Medicine Access Program for licensed healing centers to administer natural medicine services.
Proposition 122 tasked the state legislature with creating a regulatory system for psychedelic healing centers, which they did earlier this year. In May, Governor Jared Polis signed the psychedelic regulations bill into law. The measure sets no specific possession limit for psychedelics, and it mandates that the state issue licenses for testing facilities, cultivation facilities, product manufacturers and healing centers where certain psychedelics can be consumed.
In Massachusetts six different cities have passed ordinances decriminalizing the possession of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. Salem was the most recent in May, joining Cambridge, Somerville, Easthampton, Northhampton and Amherst.
