Should ‘Shrooms Be Legalized?

What’s the story?

Voters in California legalized recreational marijuana—could magic mushrooms be next?

The hula dancers on my Hawaiian shirt say, "Oh yeah," but the undulating pattern on my wallpaper says, “Who are you really?”

While Washington, Oregon and Colorado beat California to the pot party, the Golden State may be the first of the nifty fifty to legalize psychedelic mushrooms.

Why does it matter?

Kevin Saunders, a mayoral candidate for the Central Coast town of Marina, recently filed a proposal to legalize the possession, sale, carrying and cultivating of the psilocybin-containing fungi for persons 21 and older.

"What I want to do is take the shackles off," Saunders recently said in an interview with the Sacramento Bee. “I want to have an adult conversation. Not only are the soccer moms high now, but some of them are taking mushrooms.”

The initiative, however, is still in its spore stage: to get the measure on the ballot, Saunders has to collect at least 365,880 signatures within 180 days. And as the L.A. Weekly noted, "it takes about $2 million to $3 million to collect the" required signatures.

Despite the economic and numerical challenges of gathering the signatures, Saunders remains undaunted. He told the Bee that a "large community of volunteers will help gather signatures" and he hopes the campaign will get financial assistance from groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance, Hollywood celebrities, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

"We think that things are evolving so quickly and that minds are opening almost daily," Saunders said.

Even if the initiative were to make it to the ballot, and voters decided to pass it, legalized magic mushrooms would face the same challenges as legalized marijuana: it would remain illegal on the federal level. As The Hill explained, "Psilocybin is a Schedule 1 substance under federal law, meaning it is ripe for potential abuse and has no widely accepted medical use. Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, ecstasy and bath salts."

Saunders filed his measure with the office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) last Friday. Becerra’s office will review the language of the proposal before issuing a ballot title and formal summary of the measure. Then, Saunders will be cleared to gather signatures.

What do you think?

Should mushrooms be legalized? Should voters or the government decide which drugs should be legal? Hit the Take Action button, tell your reps, comment below, watch your words bleed, and who are you really?

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: gilaxia / iStockphoto)