Late last week, Michigan Democratic State Senator Jeff Irwin introduced a bill at the floor of the house, Senate Bill 631, seeking to legalize two popular psychedelics drugs namely mescaline and psilocybin across the state.
The bill is advocating exemption from criminal prosecution in circumstances involving possession and use of mescaline and psilocybin.
“These substances have medicinal value, they have religious significance and they have a very low propensity for abuse. And so that’s why I’m proposing to decriminalize the substance because it really makes no sense to spend any time or money arresting people and turning their lives upside down,” said Irwin.
According to the bill, practitioners will be allowed to charge a reasonable fee for counseling, spiritual guidance or a related service that is provided in conjunction with the use of f an entheogenic plant or fungus under administered under the supervision of a person offering the service.
The bill recognizes psychedelics drugs produced by entheogenic plants and fungi including; BMT, ibogaine, mescaline, psilocin and psilocybin.
Irwin believes decriminalization of psychedelics will help greatly both at the state level and at the national level as it will change the lives of many citizens in a positive way if only the drugs stop being viewed from a criminal point of view.
“There are efforts in other communities across the state to decriminalize these substances and to stop wasting any police resource and turning people’s lives upside down over it. I’m really proud to be kind of starting up this conversation at the state level of why is it that we’re continuing to engage this fail in government policy of prohibition? Why are we continuing to prosecute the war on drugs in ways that don’t help us and lead to mass incarceration?” added Irwin.
