Psychedelic drugs in Vermont: A grassroots push for legalization picks up on lawmakers' effort

April Fisher
Burlington Free Press

As a January 2020 bill to decriminalize certain hallucinogenic drugs in Vermont currently sits in committee, a grassroots petition was recently started to "legalize psychedelics for mental health in Vermont."

Garnering over 260 signatures over the past two weeks, the petition cites research from the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research as evidence of the safety and mental health benefits of psychedelic drugs. Johns Hopkins has found that psilocybin, also known as "magic mushrooms," can help relieve depression, anxietynicotine addiction, and alcohol dependency

The petition urges Vermont to follow in the steps of other parts of the country that have decriminalized certain psychedelics, which include Oregon; Denver; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Santa Cruz, California; and Washington, D.C.

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In addition to their hallucinogenic effects, psilocybin mushrooms (also known as "magic mushrooms") may play a role in the treatment of mental health issues.

Bill H.878, introduced by Vermont State Representative Brian Cina (P/D-Burlington) would decriminalize "certain drugs commonly used for medicinal, spiritual, religious, or entheogenic purposes," including psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, and kratom.

"It's a waste of society's resources to criminalize behaviors that stretch to the roots of humanity," Cina said.

Psychedelic substances have been used by Indigenous people around the world for millennia — from the Amazon basin to the Great Plains. “We used this medicine before Jesus Christ walked this Earth," Indigenous healing artist LisaNa Macias Red Bear said in an article by the publication NEO.LIFE.

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This link between government regulation of psychedelics and the colonization of the Americas connects to the last argument of the Vermont petition: that the criminalization of psychedelics stems from racism and the war on drugs. 

Psychedelics usage and research were drastically restricted in the 1970's and 80's as part of a crackdown on the counterculture movement of the 1960's, writes journalism professor Don Lattin. Harvard University psychologist and "high priest" of psychedelics Dr. Timothy Leary was proclaimed the "most dangerous man in America" by Richard Nixon, who spearheaded the "war on drugs" in 1971.

In every year from 1980 to 2007, Black people across the U.S. were arrested on drug charges at a rate of 2.8 to 5.5 times that of white people, Human Rights Watch reports.

Contact April Fisher at (845) 598-0655 or amfisher@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AMFisherMedia