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TEHRAN, May 04 -Veterans are the public face of Tuesday's push to lower the penalties for possession of psilocybin.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Denver voters next week may experience the deja vu of thawing marijuana laws 10 years ago. An initiative to decriminalize "magic mushrooms" will appear on municipal ballots Tuesday.
The "Decriminalize Denver" campaign is following a similar path blazed by early marijuana legalization advocates to drop possession of the hallucinogen psilocybin in small quantities by adults over 21 to a "lowest law-enforcement priority."
Selling the mushrooms still would be illegal under the law. The proposed initiated ordinance, I-301, also creates a "policy review panel," similar to the city's first marijuana review group, to assess the new law.
Organizers in Denver struggled three times to get the issue on the ballot. They were rejected twice in 2018 for unclear language. Finally, in January, they submitted more than 8,000 signatures -- enough to secure ballot space.
Another measure that may open the path to legalization for magic mushrooms is being proposed for the 2020 statewide ballot in Oregon.
Shrooms 'saved my life'
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver District Attorney Beth McCann oppose the ballot measure. Other opponents fear it will add negatively to the "druggy" reputation of Denver already tarnished by legalized pot.
But the group of veterans who are leading -- and financing -- the ballot measure credit the use of hallucinogens to their own path toward healing from treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse.
"The mushrooms saved my life," said Kevin Matthews, 33, a father who is leading the campaign.
Matthews, a Denver native, said severe depression made him give up his lifelong dream of becoming a U.S. Army officer, forcing him to drop out of the U.S. Military Academy with a medical discharge at age 23.
"I didn't feel it would be a responsible choice to be an officer leading men and women into combat," he told UPI.
Having been prescribed anti-depression drugs and sleeping pills, he said his first experience consuming "shrooms" with a group of friends gave him a "spiritual" experience, elevating him out of his mental state.
"I could see very clearly, I had people who loved me, which enabled me to see to make a choice -- choose to be depressed or realize that there's so much more possibility here," Matthews said, adding that the positive effects of the four-hour "trip" lasted for several weeks.
Limited studies
Matthews' street-drug experience echoes the results of several small, controlled studies in the United States and the United Kingdom that have shown psilocybin use forms synapse pathways to create a "hyperconnected brain."
A 2016 Johns Hopkins study of 51 terminal cancer patients showed that treatment with a low doses of psilocybin reduced depression and anxiety. A 2017 study of 20 patients with hard-to-treat depression at the Imperial College London described feeling "reset" after treatment with magic mushrooms, lead researcher Robin Carhart-Harris said.
Source: UPI
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