Mushrooms Legal in Oakland
How Illinois became the first state legislature to legalize the sale of marijuana In Oregon — where all drugs have been decriminalized — a separate law (Oregon Measure 109) passed by voters in November 2020 legalized psilocybin nationwide. The Oregon Health Authority is drafting regulations for sale and distribution that allow for “personal development” with mushrooms grown and administered only in licensed environments, according to the election initiative. Plazola and his organization now want to build on the original reform by giving city residents the right to use these substances in city facilities. In December 2020, Decriminalize Nature successfully lobbied the City Council to pass the Oakland Community Healing Initiative resolution. It simply asks the state government to grant legal protection to the city so that people can use entheogens in group “healing ceremonies.” For Hodges, it`s the perfect environment to indulge in psychedelics. He hopes to soon give Zide Door members access to the home as a place where they can safely ingest “heroic” doses of mushrooms, while pre-qualified, Hodges-appointed “trip-sitters” watch over them to keep them safe. Hodges calls the project “God`s Sitters.” “Entheogenic agents for religious use,” Hodges says. “When Oakland passed this resolution, it was a sign. I had been interested in mushrooms for a long time, but I hadn`t tried them yet.
Six months after Zide Door opened, an independent psychedelic activist group called Decriminalize Nature Oakland convinced the city council to unanimously pass a resolution to effectively decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms and certain other entheogenic plants as part of a growing wave of successful local efforts to decriminalize psychedelics, as well as the decriminalization of all drugs in Oregon. Anthropologist and entheogenic plant researcher Acacea Lewis, 27, is the founder of Divine Master Alchemy, a school of entheogenic practices, and a passionate advocate for expanding access to fungi and other entheogenic plants that she and many others consider sacred. Lewis, who spoke alongside Hodges earlier this year at a Zide Door, Spirituality and Beyond 2 event, believes groups like Zide Door and Divine Master Alchemy are doing important work in creating spaces where curious people can explore their spirituality using entheogens, without judgment and outside the confines of a clinical setting. Instead, in six months, Hodges has seen dozens of other clubs emerge in his wake. When local authorities decided to resist the tide, it was one of their first targets. In 2010, the San Jose Cannabis Buyer`s Collective sued the city, accusing it of illegally forcing landlords to evict medical cannabis collectives from their properties. That lawsuit didn`t come to fruition, but Hodges managed to hold the line until 2015, when San Jose passed a strict medical cannabis ordinance that pushed him out of town. Magic mushrooms or psilocybin are natural mushrooms that are consumed for their hallucinogenic effects. The specific effects of magic mushrooms vary from person to person, but often include feelings of euphoria and well-being, as well as changes in consciousness, mood, or cognition. Magic mushrooms can be fresh, boiled, brewed in tea or dried and smoked. After decades of smoking “up to two ounces of cannabis a day,” Hodges decided he had refuted the entry-level theory. And anyway, it could not very well lead the church to provide mushrooms and incorporate them into their sermons without tasting them first.
The Oakland City Council has decided to decriminalize psychedelics derived from plants and mushrooms, including magic mushrooms. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that law enforcement in the California city will not prosecute people for possession of the substance, though commercial distribution and possession in schools remains illegal. The resolution means Oakland becomes the second U.S. city to decriminalize the drug, following the 301 initiative passed in Denver last month. “Psilocybin mushrooms are used to treat a number of things,” says Carreon. Most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but there are studies on breaking up alcohol or tobacco addictions and treating eating disorders. Psychedelic mushrooms and other entheogenic plants and mushrooms seem to be making the same journey. SAN FRANCISCO – First the pot, now “mushrooms.” The city council in Oakland, California, voted unanimously Tuesday to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms, also known as “magic mushrooms.” Lewis, who grew up in a Pentecostal Christian family, was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms as a teenager and said the plants helped her overcome deep feelings of depression and even suicidal thoughts. There are a variety of ways to take it, including candy chocolates and pixie sticks.
