Shelby Hartman, breaking some big news yesterday for DoubleBlind:
Tonight (September 21), Ann Arbor became the third city in the United States to decriminalize all-naturally occurring psychedelic plants and fungi. The city follows in the footsteps of Oakland, which became the first city in the United States to pass a resolution like it, in June of last year—and Santa Cruz, which followed in January of this year.
The resolution, which was passed by Ann Arbor’s city council, does not legalize psychedelics, but, rather, makes them “the lowest law enforcement priority” and blocks city funds or resources from being used to investigate, detain, arrest, or prosecute people in the city for using “entheogenic plants.” (This includes plants and fungi, from psilocybin-containing mushrooms to san pedro and ayahuasca.) In addition to possession, the resolution makes planting, cultivating, purchasing, distributing and “engaging in practices with” these plants the lowest law enforcement priority. This means people in the city of Ann Arbor can now use naturally-occurring entheogens with relatively low risk, but that they remain illegal both in the city, state, and federally. The resolution also explicitly excludes the protection of “commercial sales or manufacturing of these plants and fungi, possessing or distributing these materials in schools, driving under the influence of these materials, or public disturbance.”
Who’s next?