A Former Mormon Politician Started A Psilocybin Church

Erin Hiatt, writing for DoubleBlind:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, formerly known as the LDS or Mormon Church, makes its home and headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the heart of the Wasatch Mountains. With its complex of Church headquarters, conference centers, and flagship Salt Lake Temple and surrounding Temple Square, the Church literally and figuratively imposes over the topography of downtown Salt Lake City. However, many would argue that the Church dominates more than just the downtown area—exerting an oversized pull over politics at the state capitol, a mere fifteen minute walk from church headquarters.

Steve Urquhart is deeply familiar with both the state capitol and the internal life of a faithful member of the Church. As a Republican, he formerly served as a Utah State Representative in the deeply conservative southwest corner of the state. Today, he is neither a lawmaker nor Latter-day Saint. Instead, he is the founder and “protector” of The Divine Assembly, a Salt Lake City-based psilocybin church.

A practicing lawyer, Urquhart is a straight-and-narrow-path kind of guy: He served a mission for the Church to Brazil, married his wife Sara in a Church, and raised his four children in the faith. He never wandered far from that path until he and his wife had a life-altering experience with ayahuasca in Amsterdam.

What a ballsy move. Psilocybin mushrooms are not legal in Utah and although there is some legal precedent for the religious use of psychedelics for some groups, The Divine Assembly is a brand-new religion and there’s no guarantee the U.S. government will deem either it or its practices to be legitimate.

If Urquhart’s church is allowed to continue using psilocybin mushrooms as a sacrament, other religious and spiritual groups may follow suit. However, there is a real possibility that they may soon find themselves arguing their case in court.

Personally, I find the idea of communing with the divine via entheogens to be completely reasonable and wish Urquhart luck in his quest to further establish a religious right to use psychedelics.

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The Third (and Likely Final) Season of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia Is Out

In case you weren’t already aware, the third (and likely final) season of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia started airing on VICE TV this week. I haven’t had a chance to watch any of it yet myself but I figured the Think Wilder audience would like to know that it’s out there. Apparently the first episode focuses on 5-MeO-DMT, and judging from the write-up on Psychedelic Science Review it sounds mighty interesting if you ask me.

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The New Democratic Congress Is Expected to Approve Cannabis Legalization By 2022

Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment:

The Senate will vote to pass a bill to federally legalize marijuana within the next two years.

That’s according to the top Democratic lawmaker who is expected to be installed as majority leader following his party’s projected clean sweep in this week’s two Georgia runoff elections that will give them control of the chamber.

Coupled with Joe Biden’s presidential win, the new situation on Capitol Hill means that federal cannabis policy change is in the cards for the 117th Congress. While the former vice president has declined to embrace adult-use legalization, he’s pledged to adopt modest reforms such as marijuana decriminalization and expunging past records.

And a push from House and Senate Democratic leadership—who are already on record with pledges to advance far-reaching marijuana reforms—could lead to the comprehensive changes that advocates have been fighting for, including the advancement of a federal cannabis descheduling bill that cleared the House last month.

Although there’s been a lot of insanity happening on Capitol Hill this week, federally-legal cannabis might actually become a reality within the next two years. And even if Congress doesn’t approve legislation that would legalize marijuana nationwide (or at least deschedule it), several states are already working on state-level reforms that could take place later this year.

Of course all this is assuming that the United States still has a functioning democracy in the future. I’m not much of a betting man, but if I was then I’d wager that our country will recover from this week’s craziness and that weed will be legal by 2022—maybe even this year. Here’s hoping.

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Go Take the 2021 Global Drug Survey

At the end of every year the Global Drug Survey opens up, inviting people from around the world to take part in the world’s biggest anonymous drug survey.

Since its inaugural run in 2014, the survey data has revealed information about new substance use trends, helping to guide the development of saner drug policies and distributing up-to-date harm reduction tips and techniques.

In addition to asking the usual questions, this year the Global Drug Survey is also zeroing in on a few new topics: how COVID-19 has changed how people share drugs, online support for mental health problems, the ways people use marijuana medicinally, microdosing with psychedelics, and partying during the pandemic. Your experience has never mattered more.

If you’ve taken drugs this year then you should fill out this survey. It can take a while to complete, especially if you’ve used a wide variety of substances, but the data will contribute to a better understanding of how the world uses drugs and educate people on how to use them in the safest possible way.

Time is quickly running out so you better jump on it fast if you want to participate—the submission period ends on January 31st.

House Approves Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill in Historic Vote

Kyle Jaeger, writing for Marijuana Moment:

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to federally legalize marijuana in a historic vote on Friday.

It’s the day that cannabis reform advocates have been building toward for years—a full floor vote to end prohibition in a chamber of Congress.

Prior to the bill’s approval in a 228 to 164 vote, Republican lawmakers spent days criticizing their Democratic counterparts for even bringing the legislation to the floor.

While the vote was mostly along party lines, five Republicans supported the reform and six Democrats opposed it.

Under the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, cannabis would be federally descheduled and those with prior convictions would have their records expunged. The descheduling provisions would be retroactive, too.

Despite the unprecedented House victory for reformers, few believe the legislation stands a chance in the Republican-controlled Senate, at least before the end of the current Congress early next month. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D-CA) is the lead sponsor of the Senate companion version of the bill.

Ahead of the bill’s passage, debate on the floor largely consisted of Democrats making the case that the reform will help to right the wrongs of the racist war on drugs, and Republicans arguing that legalization would cause harms to children and public safety and that now is not the right time to consider the issue in any case.

Another (mostly symbolic) cannabis policy reform win for the week. Although this likely won’t pass in the Senate, at least the ball is still rolling forward in the right direction.

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