The city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, may soon deprioritize the enforcement of laws against the use, growing and possession of entheogenic fungi and plants. Grand Rapids city commissioner Kurt Reppart stated that, while this wouldn’t decriminalize the psychedelics, it would allow individuals to gift, grow, use or possess psychedelics without facing any legal charges.
Reppart is in favor of making psychedelics the lowest priority for the city’s law enforcement and believes that the move will not only acknowledge that these fungi and plants can not only be medicines for individuals using them to treat conditions such as anxiety, depression, addiction and PTSD, but that they also save resources.
The move also brings the city one step closer to decriminalization, which is what Decriminalize Nature Grand Rapids, a chapter of the national group that calls for the decriminalization and destigmatization of entheogenic fungi and plants across the country, is working towards. The chapter’s founder and board member Chad Beyer stated that decriminalization was risk reduction given that many people in the city as well as the country were already using these drugs.
The city of Grand Rapids has one of the highest depression rates in the United States. Decriminalize Nature Grand Rapids believes that decriminalization would allow affected individuals who would like to try this alternative to do so.
Some believe that psychedelics are a much better option than current options, given that opioids and antidepressants are not only expensive but also ineffective in some individuals. Opioids are also highly addictive, which makes them dangerous. Beyer, who was diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease known as spinocerebellar ataxia five years ago, revealed that he’d used psilocybin mushrooms as part of his treatment in the past.
The growing interest in psychedelics as well as the destigmatization of mental health also encourages academia to study these substances. The U.S. FDA, the University of California-Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Yale are some of the many institutions that have conducted studies on entheogenic fungi and plants in a bid to discover their medical benefits.
This isn’t the first city in the state of Michigan to consider psychedelic measures. Last year in September, the city of Ann Arbor decriminalized the cultivation, use and possession of entheogenic plants and fungi. Soon after, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced that he would not prosecute any cases of cultivation, use or possession of entheogenic plants and fungi, which made these cases a low priority for law enforcement.
The growing wave to decriminalize various psychedelic compounds is coming at a time when a number of companies, including Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN), have made progress in developing therapeutic formulations from substances such as psilocybin, or magic, mushrooms and other psychedelics.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CYBN
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