Political strategists in Massachusetts have quietly filed paperwork to put a therapeutic psychedelics legalization initiative on the state’s 2024 ballot.
The newly formed Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO) committee submitted initial documents to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), signaling their intent to secure ballot placement for the measure, details of which are currently sparse.
An organization statement filed last week says that the purpose of the group will be to “expand mental health treatment options in Massachusetts by providing new pathways to access natural psychedelic medicine therapy.”
The filing also says that the forthcoming ballot question will be focused on “creating access to natural psychedelic medicine therapy and removing criminal penalties for personal possession of these medicines.”
But the development, first reported by Mason Marks in Psychedelic Week, has left some feeling uncomfortable. Part of the reason is that there’s an open question as to what extent the committee sought to engage with local reform advocacy groups that have successfully worked to enact psychedelics decriminalization in six Massachusetts cities—most recently in Salem.
Marks, a law professor at the Florida State University College of Law and co-founder of the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR)
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