On July 11, Berkeley City Council unanimously voted to adopt a resolution to “[De-prioritize] the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties for Entheogenic/Psychedelic plants and fungi for personal use.” This category applies to psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca or DMT, ibogaine and mescaline cacti. These plants or fungi containing psychedelic compounds are used throughout the world, including for recreational, spiritual, religious, therapeutic or medical purposes.

Councilmember Sophie Hahn sponsored the resolution, which also states that city public health officials will collect data on psychedelics use, and work with local organizations to “address the use of psychedelics.”

“Berkeley is making a statement to the world to end punitive approaches to entheogenic plant and fungi practices.”

“We are excited for Berkeley to join Oakland, San Francisco, and 16 other cities and counties nationwide,” said Larry Norris, PhD, Cofounder of Decriminalize Nature National and Decriminalize Nature Berkeley, which led the local decriminalization campaign, in a statement. “Berkeley is making a statement to the world to end punitive approaches to entheogenic plant and fungi practices, and allow for additional forms of healing as well as personal and spiritual growth for the community.”

“Although I’m a little surprised it took Berkeley so long to get on board, I’m very excited to see the Bay Area now be a united front on this movement,” added Taylor Blevons, a Decriminalize Nature activist and former Greenpeace regional director, in a statement shared with Filter. “After years of trying to convince the public that it’s past time we take dramatic environmental action, I think what we need more than anything is a shift in consciousness. I believe allowing people to develop their own relationship with these gifts from nature will help humanity remember our connection to the natural world, heal ourselves and the earth.”

Berkeley lawmakers first introduced a version of this bill in 2019. At that time, activists Alexander Williams and Larry Norris were leading the charge, working with the Berkeley Entheogenic Society and supported by Decriminalize Nature Oakland. There was some initial success, as Councilmember Rigel Robinson took on the resolution and it passed the public safety committee. But a hearing in the health committee, initially scheduled for October that year, was delayed throughout the fall. It eventually passed that committee, but the committee was required to complete a report for the other council members. But then, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled certain Council activities and indefinitely delayed the resolution.

To understand how this reform might work in practice, we can look down San Pablo Avenue—to the neighboring city of Oakland, which became the first city to decriminalize all psychedelic plants and fungi after a unanimous vote from its own lawmakers in 2019.

Berkeley’s resolution is more restrictive than the current rules in Oakland, however.

In the two years that followed, Filter learned that there were virtually no arrests for these substances—which admittedly isn’t surprising, as there were few arrests before the law changed. Emergency room visits concerning psychedelic use also remained low. One Oakland advocate related anecdotally to Filter that the reform sparked a wave of interest in mushroom growing—and an underground trade—and that local organizations and communities were hosting more conversations and activities around psychedelics.

Berkeley’s resolution is more restrictive than the current rules in Oakland, however. It permits possession, cultivation, processing and preparation of these substances for personal use—but not selling or sharing these substances with other people. In Oakland, a followup 2020 initiative protects people who gift and share psychedelics, or who help other adults who want to use them. San Francisco also protects “transporting, distributing, [and] engaging in practices with” psychedelics, which includes some group use—in line with the agenda of Decriminalize Nature. It seems that the Berkeley City Council wasn’t yet willing to go that far.

One other potential sticking point with Berkeley’s resolution is how it treats peyote cacti—which are not decriminalized. These species grow naturally in the Rio Grande region of the southwest US and Mexico, and contain mescaline. San Pedro and Peruvian torch species of cacti also include the compound. But peyote faces unique ecological challenges. Its wild populations are rapidly declining, as a result of industrial mining, cattle ranching, real estate development and human harvesting.

Peyote is sacred to many Indigenous traditions in the US and Mexico. But groups including the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative and National Council of Native American Churches have publicly opposed its decriminalization, arguing that it will encourage more human harvesting. Berkeley lawmakers excluded peyote on this basis. Yet Decriminalize Nature has continued to support decriminalizing peyote, arguing that nobody should face arrest and jail time for using the plant, and that the way to protect wild peyote is to sponsor large-scale cultivation projects.

In just a few years, psychedelic decriminalization has exploded throughout the US. It arguably started when Denver, Colorado voters approved a 2019 ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms, before Oakland’s broader reform was enacted later that year.

Decriminalize Nature has championed an approach that is perhaps less sexy than statewide ballot campaigns, but demonstrably effective. It’s old-fashioned, local politics—meeting with your lawmakers, stating your concerns, and persuading them to support you.

Since 2019, 16 cities before Berkeley, plus two counties and two states, have passed similar psychedelic decriminalization measures—including San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Washington, DC, and smaller jurisdictions in California, Washington, Michigan and Massachusetts. During this time, we’ve seen Oregon voters approve both legalizing psilocybin for healing purposes and the decriminalization of low-level possession of all drugs. And Colorado voters approved both the legalization of psychedelics for healing and decriminalization of simple possession.

Decriminalize Nature hasn’t supported all these efforts, but its widespread city-level successes have helped inspire other advocates.

Update 07/17/2023: Corrected to clarify Larry Norris’ early role in the initial campaign, and why the City Council delayed action on the resolution during the pandemic.

Image of campus at University of California, Berkeley by John Loo used via WikiMedia/Creative Commons 2.0

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On September 14, Native News Online reported that leaders of the Native American Church of North America (NACNA) were holding meetings with US senators and representatives throughout the week. According to NACNA’s Facebook page, they met with elected officials from both parties representing Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Arizona.

The NACNA is requesting that the federal departments of the Interior or Agriculture allocate $5 million to preserve peyote habitat, by paying landowners who agree to set aside land as protected sanctuary. It also requests the formation of an advisory committee, including private, tribal, state and federal representatives, to explore ways to preserve peyote.

The NACNA is a national religious organization representing over 100,000 members and 100 tribes, with chapters in 30 states. Members practice a religion that combines Christianity with traditional Indigenous beliefs. It features sacramental use of peyote as a way to connect the believer with God. (A NACNA representative was not able to respond to Filter‘s request for comment by publication time; a follow-up interview is planned.)

While mescaline is federally classified as a Schedule I illegal substance, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978 and its 1994 amendments protect the “nondrug” use of peyote in “bona fide religious ceremonies.” Anyone who harvests and sells it for use by federally recognized tribes is supposed to obtain a special license from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“Peyote is not an endangered species … It is, however, incredibly pressured, and what is endangered is populations that are accessible to harvesting.”

Over 80 percent of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) habitat is found in Mexico. In the US, it grows only in southern Texas, along the Rio Grande. The cactus produces mescaline, a drug with similar effects to LSD and psilocybin that acts on the brain’s serotonin system (several species of South American cacti also produce mescaline).

“Peyote is not an endangered species,” Keeper Trout, co-founder of the Cactus Conservation Institute, told Filter. “If it was, people could not harvest millions of them every year. It is, however, incredibly pressured, and what is endangered is populations that are accessible to harvesting. What’s endangered is the Native American Church and their ceremonies. There’s always going to be peyote somewhere that people can’t access or they don’t know about.”

Trout explained that peyote is being depleted because of overdevelopment of its lands, which are cleared by root plowing for cattle ranching, agriculture, wind towers, and residential and business real estate.

Meanwhile, other lands that are not cleared are bought by private owners, then fenced off. This blocks the peyote from being harvested. Under the historical rules governing peyote harvesting in Texas, landowners cannot grow or move peyote on their property—but they can destroy it. Specially licensed distributors working on behalf of the Native American Church may receive permission from landowners to harvest peyote, but this is not guaranteed. If permission is given, landowners may charge a flat fee for harvesters to take as much peyote as they want. Landowners are restricted from charging higher fees based on the weight of the harvest—doing so could even subject them to criminal drug charges.  

Concerns over the future of accessible peyote have sometimes divided Indigenous communties and drug policy reform advocates.

These rules effectively limit the areas where peyote can be harvested, encourage over-harvesting in those areas where it can be retrieved, and prevent new peyote being grown. Although peyote can regrow if the top of the plant is harvested correctly, harvesting must be careful and sparing for this to happen. The cactus can take many years to mature and flower.

Concerns over the future of accessible peyote have sometimes divided Indigenous communties and drug policy reform advocates. In 2019, Oakland became the US first city to decriminalize naturally occurring psychedelics—including peyote—for possession and cultivation. Another Californian city, Santa Cruz, followed Oakland’s lead in decriminalizing psychedelics in January 2020—only to very publicly reverse course in October 2021, removing peyote and other mescaline-containing cacti from its decriminalization law. This reversal followed opposition from groups like the National Council of Native American Churches, which argued that decriminalization would encourage non-Indigenous people to illegally poach peyote from stressed habitats.

More recently, in 2022, an unsuccessful California effort to decriminalize psychedelics statewide lost the support of advocacy group Decriminalize Nature in part because it exempted peyote. Decriminalize Nature has countered objections to peyote decriminalization with a plan calling for large-scale cultivation to protect the species.

Cultivation of peyote could provide sources for non-religious use, but it wouldn’t directly address a key demand of some Native American Church members—that peyote for their sacraments be grown wild, untouched by human hands.

“What some Indigenous people object to is the idea that human hands are involved,” Trout said, explaining that beliefs in the supernatural status of peyote can mean that discussion of its cultivation may cause offense.

“If this is done in a way that was respectful to all interests, I believe it could work.”

Trout agreed that the plan now being advanced by the NACNA—to pay landowners to protect peyote habitats—could help preserve its populations. For it to be truly effective, he said, it would need to be scaled up with a lot more money than $5 million. The federal government would need to get many landowners on board to preserve enough habitat. Based on Trout’s estimation, to harvest 1 million peyote buttons a year, you would need over 200 square miles of peyote population, fragmented over a large expanse of land.

“I think it’s probably one of the most sensible approaches,” Trout said of the NACNA’s lobbying effort for conservation easements. “The reality is where you have the best peyote populations, it’s actually the most poor terrain for agriculture and everything else. If this is done in a way that was respectful to all interests, I believe it could work.”

Photograph of Lophophora williamsii in South Texas by Cactus Conservation Institute

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In the Andes, crop-eradication campaigns have militarized coca-producing areas and displaced Indigenous people to neighboring countries. In Brazil, anti-drug rhetoric has been used to justify police raids in Indigenous communities. In Mexico, where 21 percent of the population identify as Indigenous, both peyote and psilocybin mushrooms are prohibited for almost all Mexicans, and some species are in danger of extinction. Across the region, Indigenous people are also disproportionately incarcerated on drug charges, particularly for cultivation.

Throughout much of the region, Indigenous lands have become the epicenter of battles between ruthless drug trafficking organizations and corrupt police and military forces—each side holding Indigenous peoples hostage to their agendas, and threatening the communities with violence if they fail to contribute to their goals.

Latin America’s policymakers did more than uncritically import a fight that did not belong to them. They were themselves key agents in building the region’s drug war.

When President Richard Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” 50 years ago, he launched a set of policies that not only targeted drug users and people of color in the United States, but were coercively exported around the world. Latin America, as one of the main stages for this US-led and sponsored global drug war, pays the price for this political choice every day. Judged by the ostensible goals of the drug war’s architects, the results have been scant. Colombia, the country that has received the most anti-narcotic cooperation from the US, is also the largest exporter of cocaine into the US.

However, Latin America’s policymakers did more than uncritically import a fight that did not belong to them. They were themselves key agents in building the foundations of the region’s drug war.

The white, colonial elite of Latin America were complicit not only in implementing the drug war, but in conceiving it as a way to control, criminalize and, ultimately, exterminate ethnic and racial minorities, particularly Black and Indigenous groups.

In Latin American military circles, for example, the “scorched earth” doctrine—utilized particularly during the Cold War years in Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia and El Salvador—was expanded to include Indigenous Peoples, their language, culture and traditional authorities. This was first employed in strategies to combat potential or active insurgents, and later as part of strategies to combat drug traffickers. Indigenous cultures, long blamed by white elites for countries’ inability to “progress,” have also become the targets of blame for the region’s “negative image” by politicians seeking to cooperate with the US War on Drugs.

Maintaining the drug war thus reinforces the idea that Indigenous peoples are secondary; that the pain and suffering they have been subjected to in the name of a global drug war is not important; and that their cultures, traditions, beliefs and knowledge are not worthy of being protected and valued. It denies them their humanity.

The prohibition of natural plants that are used by Indigenous Peoples for spiritual, medicinal and other purposes additionally contradicts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples —intended to safeguard “the survival, dignity, and well-being of the world’s Indigenous peoples,” preserving and supporting their distinct cultural traditions.

A transformation of this magnitude will only come if Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of discussions, leading the change the world needs.

The use of the coca leaf by Indigenous peoples in the Andes, for example, precedes the arrival of the first European settlers, and its medicinal, nutritional, social, and religious importance for these communities has been widely recorded and acknowledged. A similar position is held by the cannabis plant in Africa and much of Asia, where it was cultivated, traded, and used as medicine in pre colonial times,  and it has a sacred role in the Rastafarian, Sufi and Hindu religions. The opium poppy is another example with a centuries-old history of traditional-medicine and ceremonial use in Asia and the Middle East.

To dismantle Latin America’s use of the drug war as a tool to oppress Indigenous people, we must decolonize drug policies and create something new. For this to happen, we need to redefine humanity outside of coloniality, ensuring that Indigenous peoples and other communities disproportionately impacted by the drug war have their human rights recognized and protected. A transformation of this magnitude, however, requires a recognition of the deep-rooted prejudices against Indigenous cultures that persist in the region—a transformation that will only come if Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of discussions, leading the change the world needs.

Photograph of Colombian narcotics forces after the burning of an alleged coca producing facility in 2008, by the National Police of Colombia via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0

The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, has previously received a restricted grant from the Open Society Foundations, which employs two of the authors, to support promotions related to the film Liquid Handcuffs.

The post To Support Indigenous Rights in Latin America, Decolonize Drug Policies appeared first on Filter.

While part of the debate concerns the deeply entrenched, religious history that Native communities have with the psychedelic, the main issue that both sides agree needs to be resolved is the rapid decline of the cacti due to overharvesting. Peyote plants take seven to 12 years to mature, making the species especially vulnerable to supply issues amid growing demand.

In a recent letter to the reform community, the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Communication Committee (IPCCC) said that measures to decriminalize psychedelics locally or at the state level should not include peyote because it would be “very disruptive” to conservation efforts that Native groups are already undertaking.

“This conservation effort includes regulatory and legal measures designed to ensure biocultural conservation. It is important this effort not be interrupted or diluted,” the letter said. “Individual, state or local decriminalization efforts that include peyote can be disruptive to the nation-wide strategy driven by Native American people to protect, conserve and ensure the spiritual and ecological sustainability of peyote.”

The group’s position is “not due to opposition to decriminalization efforts in general,” IPCCC stressed, “but because there is an entire conservation strategy already underway.”

“We are eager to understand why they believed it was not a good idea to bring together Indigenous leaders from various tribes.”

But on the other side of the debate, Decriminalize Nature (DN)—the organization that’s behind a slew of successful psychedelics reform initiatives—says it doesn’t see conservation and decriminalization as mutually exclusive. And it hopes to work with Indigenous groups to forge an acceptable path forward.

Carlos Plazola, chair of the DN National Board, said in a response letter to IPCCC that peyote “is a key ally in our collective struggle to awaken the masses from the fear-based slumber of disconnection from ourselves, each other and nature,” and so “we are very eager to hear the plan to save Peyote from extinction.”

“From December 2020 to February 2021, we encouraged the formation of a Blue-Ribbon Task Force to study ways to save peyote from extinction as part of the CA state-wide effort to decriminalize entheogens,” Plazola said. “But we understand the [Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative] and [National Council of Native American Churches] did not support this public process and discouraged its formation.”

“We are eager to understand why they believed it was not a good idea to bring together Indigenous leaders from various tribes in California, the US and Mexico; conservation biologists; leaders of [Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative] and [National Council of Native American Churches]; policy makers; botanists, biologists, climatologists and others to openly study ways to ensure peyote does not go extinct, while still honoring Indigenous rights and rituals with Peyote,” the letter continued.

“It’s incumbent on all of us to be respectful allies and show deference and respect to the Indigenous-led preservation effort already underway.”

As it stands, DN’s platform calls for the decriminalization of peyote cultivation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and making it so peyote in its “natural habitat” should be exclusively available to Native groups.

David Bronner, CEO of the soap company Dr. Bronner’s, who has funded various drug policy reform campaigns, told Marijuana Moment that Indigenous leaders have “asked the psychedelic movement to follow their lead on conservation of peyote medicine on this continent, and not decriminalize their medicine at the state or city level.”

“Cultivation of slow-growing peyote is one of many long-term conservation strategies that the National Council is already engaged on at a nationwide level under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act: It does not require any regulatory changes at the city or state level,” he said. “The [Native American Church] does not want a signal sent to non-Native seekers that it’s OK to use peyote for healing in ceremony, which would spike demand for their slow-growing medicine.”

“There are other mescaline-containing cacti like San Pedro that non-Natives can use,” he added. “It’s extremely disrespectful to assume that the NAC doesn’t know what they are doing in their efforts to conserve their medicine, and instead propose that a governmental committee be formed to lead this effort, especially given the long history of broken treaties and promises by US governmental bodies.”

“It’s incumbent on all of us to be respectful allies and show deference and respect to the Indigenous-led preservation effort already underway,” Bronner said.

The largely decentralized nature of the psychedelics reform movement might pose challenges to Indigenous groups that are hoping to steer them away from including peyote in decriminalization measures.

Numerous cities across the US have adopted measures to deprioritize enforcement of laws against entheogenic plants and fungi—and Oregon voted to legalize psilocybin mushrooms for medical use.

Last week, the Aspen, Colorado, City Council discussed the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and proposals to decriminalize such substances, but legislators declined to take action on any specific resolutions. But while that body might not be ready to advance reform, numerous other local governments have moved to stop criminalizing people over entheogens since Denver became the first city in the nation to decriminalize psilocybin via voter initiative.

The Northampton, Massachusetts, City Council is the latest example, with members unanimously adopting a resolution last month to deprioritize enforcement of laws against the possession, use and distribution of a wide range of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ayahuasca.

Two other Massachusetts cities—Somerville and Cambridge—have also moved to effectively decriminalize psychedelics. Outside of that state, four other cities—Oakland, Santa Cruz, Ann Arbor and Washington, DC—have also decriminalized possession of plant- and fungi-based psychedelics.

In Oakland, the first city where a city council voted to broadly deprioritize criminalization of entheogenic substances, lawmakers approved a follow-up resolution in December that calls for the policy change to be adopted statewide and for local jurisdictions to be allowed to permit healing ceremonies where people could use psychedelics.

After Ann Arbor legislators passed a decriminalization resolution last year, a county prosecutor recently announced that his office will not be pursuing charges over possessing entheogenic plants and fungi—“regardless of the amount at issue.”

At the state level, the Texas House of Representatives approved to a bill last week that would require the state to conduct a study into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA.

Meanwhile, two Senate committees in California have recently approved a bill to legalize possession of a wide range of psychedelics and create a working group to study broader reform.

Read IPCCC’s letter on excluding peyote from psychedelics decriminalization measures below: 

Photograph via Flickr/Creative Commons 2.0

This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.

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