The Amherst, Massachusetts Town Council has punted on a proposal to decriminalize psychedelics and other currently illicit drugs, sending it back to committee on Monday despite advocates’ hopes that the full body would enact it.
The activist-backed resolution as proposed went beyond decriminalizing drugs for personal use, too, by specifically aiming to provide protections for researchers in the city who study controlled substances like LSD and MDMA. But following discussion and the rejection of a proposed amendment, the Council referred the measure back to the Governance, Organization & Legislation Committee.
Multiple cities throughout the Bay State have enacted policies to make enforcement of laws against psychedelics and other drugs among their lowest law enforcement priorities. The Amherst measure, if enacted, have been the latest victory for that localized movement.
Separately, the campaign Bay Staters for National Medicine (BSNM) is also supporting a statewide reform push to force state lawmakers to file legislation to both legalize entheogenic substances for therapeutic use and otherwise decriminalize certain psychedelics.
Back in Amherst, local lawmakers ultimately declined to act on the resolution calling for the decriminalization of psychedelics specifically and other controlled substances more broadly. Members also defeated a proposed amendment to
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