A California bill to legalize psychedelics possession is not passing this year, despite the Senate sponsor’s last-minute efforts to reach a grand compromise that would allow it to be enacted this session.
An eleventh hour push to make key amendments—including the removal of “synthetic” psychedelics like LSD and MDMA from the proposed list of decriminalized substances in order to shift law enforcement organizations from being opposed to neutral on the bill—couldn’t carry the legislation across the finish line in a way that was satisfactory to its supporters and sponsor.
But Sen. Scott Wiener (D) told Marijuana Moment that the fight to stop criminalizing Californians over psychedelic substances isn’t over.
The Senate-passed bill, SB 519, went through the wringer before the sponsor finally decided to pull it on Friday. In the Assembly, it advanced through two committees, with amendments negotiated by Weiner, before reaching what many had hoped would be its final stop before the floor.
To advocates’ disappointment, however, the measure was effectively gutted in the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week. The main provisions that would have legalized possession of limited amounts of psychedelics like psilocybin and ibogaine were eliminated. What was left, before Wiener ultimately shelved the proposal, simply
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