California recently failed at least twice in passing sweeping statewide psychedelic decriminalization bills: a) SB-58, which Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed last year, and b) SB-519, which didn't garner enough support in the assembly the year before. It's now trying something much more modest - convening a workgroup to study psychedelic assisted therapy. The bill at
There is a lot of misinformation floating around online about SB-58, California's newest psychedelics bill. Unlike the state's last attempt, SB-58 went through both the state Senate and Assembly and is heading to Governor Newsom's desk. So it makes sense to discuss what the bill does and doesn't do. And no, it doesn't legalize psychedelics.
Since Denver became the first U.S. jurisdiction to decriminalize psilocybin in 2019, a number of cities across the country – including, most notably, Oakland and Santa Cruz in California – have decriminalized psychedelics in various forms. And as readers of the Psychedelics Law Blog are surely aware, Oregon and now Colorado passed full-scale regulatory regimes.
On September 6, 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to pass a resolution aimed at decriminalizing psychedelics. This is yet another victory in the battle against prohibition. But it's important to remember that decriminalization is very different from legalization-- just see my older summary of a host of decriminalization efforts. Decriminalization does
In 2021, California State Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB-519, a statewide psychedelics decriminalization bill. Senator Wiener didn't have the support to push the bill all the way forward in 2021, so he gathered momentum for a 2022 vote. After a gutting by the California Assembly, the state won't decriminalize psychedelics in 2022. I've regularly blogged on
A statewide psychedelics decriminalization bill that's been on pause for almost a year was recently set for a legislative hearing next month. This is huge news for California psychedelics advocates, even if we don't have a ton of information on what is likely to happen just yet. In 2021, California State Senator Scott Wiener introduced
I recently published a nationwide psychedelics law roundup post. But in doing so, I realized that it's been a while since we did a comprehensive California psychedelics update. Today, I'll walk through the two key proposed California psychedelics laws and where they stand. California's push to decriminalize (almost) all psychedelics In 2021, California Senator Scott
It's been a while since I provided an update on the state of California psychedelics law, but there have been a few important updates in the last few weeks, so it's now that time. Before jumping in, I'll remind readers that currently, all psychedelics are illegal under federal law unless a person has received an
Earlier this year, I wrote a post entitled “California May Decriminalize Psychedelics”. My post discussed a piece of legislation that was introduced (SB-519), which would decriminalize a host of psychedelic drugs. You can read about what exactly SB-519 would do in my prior post, but I want to again emphasize that the bill in its
On February 17, 2021, California Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB-519, a bill that if passed, would decriminalize a host of both natural and synthetic psychedelic drugs. In this post, I'll unpack what the law would do in its current form. Before I get into the specifics of the bill, there are three things that are
