Ann Arbor Decriminalizes Mushrooms & Psychedelic Plants
CBS Detroit - The Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution that would lessen enforcement by Ann Arbor Police when it comes to psychedelic plants and fungi according to MLive. In a unanimous vote on Monday, September 21, passed a resolution that "investigations and arrest of persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, and distributing, engaging in practices with, or processing entheogenic plants or plant compounds which are on the Federal Schedule 1 list hall be the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Ann Arbor."
The resolution sponsored by council members Anne Bannister (D) and Jeff Hayner (D), called for the City of Ann Arbor to request that the Washtenaw County Prosecutor would not charge people involved in the use of entheogenic compounds. This decriminalizes the use of ayahuasca, ibogaine, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, and other hallucinogenic substances which are illegal according to current state and federal statutes.
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/10/23/police-seek-suspect-in-connection-to-fatal-shooting-on-detroits-east-side/
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/10/23/police-seek-suspect-in-connection-to-fatal-shooting-on-detroits-east-side/
Ann Arbor has followed suit with Denver Colorado and Oakland and Santa Cruz in California who passed similar measures. Councilmember Zachary Ackerman told MLive that the issue came up when a group of activists in Ann Arbor to lobby for the decriminalization of psychedelics. Ackerman said to Mlive that after research and the help of a psychology researcher friend said "I have formed an opinion which I hope is based in logic,".
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/10/23/president-donald-trump-coming-to-lansing/
According to Ackerman research shows the benefits of entheogenic compounds. "To give some perspective, Johns Hopkins, a premiere medical research university, just launched a $17 million center dedicated exclusively to researching the medical benefits of these substances, because Johns Hopkins and their donors see the tremendous potential of these future medicines," he said to MLive.
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2020/10/22/united-airlines-rolls-out-digital-health-passport/
According to Police Chief Michael Cox, Ann Arbor has only had six arrests since 2017 for people on halucinogenic substances. So this really isn't a problem for the city. Council members said though their primary reasoning behind this is the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of these compounds. That they are not promoting a "tourist culture or recreational use".
According to MLive, advocates for the use of psychedelics say that they help provide a path out of Opioid addiction. The Ann Arbor City Council approved the resolution 11-0.
© 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Information from the MLive contributed to this report.
