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Salem recently became the sixth Massachusetts community to move toward instructing police officers to deprioritize cases involving psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms.”
Nine members of the Salem City Council voted on May 11 to approve the measure, which also calls for city officials to advocate for decriminalization and asks the Essex County District Attorney to refrain from related prosecutions. One member of the council was absent from the vote.
“It makes me a better father, it makes me more productive in a mindful way,” said Councilman Andy Varela, chair of the Public Health, Safety and Environmental Committee.
Previous communities to adopt similar measures are Cambridge, Somerville, Northampton, Easthampton and Amherst, according to Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, a group that advocates for decriminalizing plant-derived medicines.
“This victory honors those struggling with depression, addiction, and neurological diseases these plant medicines alleviate,” the group wrote.
Psilocybin is converted by the body into a substance similar to the neurotransmitter serotonin, said Dr. Miyabe Shield, a researcher and self-described “queer neurodivergent stoner scientist.”
“This has really shown intense and unprecedented therapeutic value for, specifically, PTSD, substance use disorders, social anxiety, depression,” she said.
Two states, Oregon and Colorado, have legalized psilocybin. A bill to legalize psilocybin and several other plant- or mushroom-derived medicines is pending in the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Salem’s new measure notes the long history of people using psychedelic mushrooms in various cultures and recent studies of their use in treating conditions including PTSD and depression.
Chief Lucas Miller of the Salem Police Department said that his department has made about five arrests for psilocybin over the last ten years and in each instance, there was another charge involved in the case.
“I don’t have the authority to legalize it, but what I can do is deprioritize enforcement within my agency,” he said.
Miller participated in the crafting of the city’s resolution, which does not apply to cases of commercial sales or manufacturing of psilocybin-containing fungi, possessing or distributing it on school grounds, driving under the influence of it, or public disturbances.
The Salem City Council is expected to take another unanimous vote next week, sending the measure to the mayor’s desk.
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6th Mass. community to effectively decriminalizes 'shrooms – WCVB Boston
