Berkeley, California lawmakers are poised to take up a resolution to scale back psychedelics enforcement on Tuesday—a local development that comes as the state legislature also considers broader legislation to legalize the possession and facilitation of substances like psilocybin and ayahuasca.
The Berkeley City Council agenda lists the psychedelics measure for this week’s meeting, with an unanimous “positive recommendation to approve” from the Health, Life Enrichment, Equity & Community Committee.
The chair of that panel, Councilmember Sophie Hahn, is sponsoring the resolution. The committee voted to advance the proposal—which would call on police to deprioritize enforcement of laws against all entheogenic substances, excluding peyote-derived mescaline—to a full Council vote after taking testimony in May.
The resolution notes that several California municipalities—such as Oakland and Santa Cruz—have already moved to enact local psychedelics reform. Now Berkeley is positioned to take a similar step, as SFGate first reported.
It adds that “there are criminal justice concerns associated with investigating, arresting, and incarcerating people for personal use of entheogens/psychedelics, and it is important to balance criminal justice concerns with public health concerns when crafting just and responsible policy.”
The measure on the agenda would make it the official policy of the city for
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