FILE – In this May 24, 2019, file photo a vendor bags psilocybin mushrooms at a pop-up cannabis market in Los Angeles. Despite pandemic conditions that made normal signature-gathering almost impossible, activists in the nation’s capital say they have enough signatures for a November ballot initiative that would decriminalize natural psychedelics such as mescaline and psilocybin mushrooms. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
A bill that would decriminalize the possession of some psychedelic substances passed the California State Senate Wednesday and now heads to the State Assembly.
Senate Bill 58, which was introduced by Senator Scott Weiner, would allow people age 21 or older to own or prepare “certain hallucinogenic substances,” including psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, and mescaline.
Psilocybin is often referred to as “magic mushrooms.”
The bill would also repeal laws that prohibit growing “spores or mycelium capable of producing mushrooms or other material which contain psilocybin or psilocyn.”
SB 58’s decriminalization of mescaline specifically excludes peyote derivatives.
The bill’s author states that peyote use and cultivation will remain a crime because the plant is “nearly endangered” and because of its historical spiritual use by Native Americans.
Although the bill would decriminalize some psychedelics, these substances would be prohibited on school campuses and adults would be prohibited from providing them to people under the age of 21.
A similar bill, also introduced by Weiner, was passed by the State Senate in 2021 but died in the State Assembly without a full vote.
If the current bill is approved by the State Assembly, it would then head to the governor’s desk, who could then sign it into law or veto it.
