DC Officials Count Enough Valid Signatures to Put Psychedelics Decriminalization on Ballot

Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment:

Psychedelics activists in Washington, D.C. have determined by watching officials verify their petitions that they’ve collected enough valid signatures to qualify a measure to decriminalize certain entheogenic substances for the city’s November ballot.

While the Board of Elections hasn’t made an official announcement yet, advocates have been observing the validation process since turning in their petitions earlier this month. As of Thursday, they said they crossed the valid signature requirement threshold, with more submissions still left to be counted.

The board is expected to formally announce the results of the certification process at an August 5 meeting. The campaign needs 24,712 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure and they turned in about 35,000 raw submissions.

Not only does it look like the House of Representatives is going to vote on a cannabis legalization bill in September, now DC residents will be deciding whether to decriminalize psychedelics in November. What an exciting time.

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Congress Planning Vote on Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill in September

Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment:

Leadership of the House of Representatives is moving toward holding a floor vote on a comprehensive federal cannabis legalization bill in September, multiple sources familiar with the developing plan tell Marijuana Moment.

The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act—introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) last year—has already cleared his panel and was referred to several other committees. In the months since, advocates have been eagerly awaiting further action to advance the legislation to the floor.

While the coronavirus pandemic has stalled legislative efforts on a wide range of issues, sources in the advocacy world and an aide to a key House committee chair say that a floor vote of the MORE Act is now being planned for September.

Assuming the last few kinks get ironed out in time (which is not a guarantee at this point), later this year the House will vote on the MORE Act, which would deschedule cannabis, expunge prior convictions, and impose a 5% sales tax that will be reinvested into communities that have been most harmed by the drug war. Let’s hope it succeeds.

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Man Accused of Selling Mushrooms Faces Up to Twenty Years

Conor McCormick-Cavanagh, writing for Westword:

A Denver man accused of dealing psychedelic mushrooms is facing up to twenty years in prison and a $1 million fine. On July 23, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado charged 28-year-old Kole Milner with one count of possession with intent to distribute psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms that is classified as a Schedule I drug by the federal government.

Milner pleaded not guilty during his appearance in court that same day, and was allowed to leave on bond.

The charging of Milner restarts a long-dormant case that began when Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched Milner's Denver apartment in September 2019, and left with 906 live psychedelic mushrooms and 20.42 ounces of dried mushrooms. An attorney representing Milner declined to comment on the charge, as did the U.S. Attorney's Office.

It never ceases to boggle my mind that anyone thinks it’s reasonable to throw someone behind bars for having or selling magic mushrooms. They’re just psychoactive mushrooms, not lethal weapons!

But even though Denver decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms last year, it didn’t legalize sales. And since the state and federal governments didn’t change their stance, that means anyone in the city who possesses, manufactures, and/or distributes psychedelics is still at risk with the state police and the DEA.

Bear in mind that this is happening at the same time William Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson are being released from prison for manufacturing LSD 20 years ago, which means that the drug war probably isn’t ending anytime soon, even though it should.

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Another LSD Chemist Is Being Released From Prison

More info from the team at Psymposia:

Update: (July 26, 2020 / 1:38 PM): Psymposia has confirmed that Clyde Apperson’s request to be released to home confinement prior to his October 11, 2028 release date has been approved, and he is currently at a residential reentry center in Seattle pending full release. Apperson was arrested in 2000 with William Leonard Pickard, and was sentenced to 30 years without the possibility of parole.

This is one of the most exciting stories I’ve seen since I first started following psychedelic news back in 2006. Not only is it positive, but it’s both completely unexpected and uncharacteristic of how drug war prisoners are typically treated. It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic is the catalyst that influenced the decision to release Pickard; I wonder if it has anything to do with Apperson’s release too? Perhaps something bigger is going on.

Freeing these two men, who were locked up because they committed nonviolent victimless “crimes” 20 years ago, has been a long time coming. Maybe this will start a trend. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we started to see even more people in this situation freed from unjust imprisonment? I certainly think so.

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More Info on William Leonard Pickard's Pending Release From Prison

Justin Hampton has some additional details that came out in an article today at Lucid News:

Pickard has continually appealed his case, including the RIS/CR petition which eventually won his release. The petition, alongside changes to sentencing guidelines, Pickard’s advancing age, and COVID-19, were most likely factors in Pickard’s release, according to Michael Dupler, a longtime friend of Pickard who has campaigned for his release. “Leonard’s sentence has been reduced to ‘time served’ with five years of supervised release. The actual release will happen within the next 14 days, but probably sooner,” he reports.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when I shared the piece from Psymposia last night (since this is such a huge claim and it came completely out of left field), but I’m glad to see that this news does appear to be true after all. Hampton goes into detail on Pickard’s background and history in this Lucid News article, so if you’re looking for more information on his release then be sure to check it out.

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