Somerville Team Testimony re decriminalizing entheogens — File 211137

Dear Somerville City Councilors, As residents of Somerville, our volunteers are working with dozens of state and local officials to work toward decriminalizing possession of all controlled substances and the cultivation, exchange, and ceremonial use entheogenic (ie. psychedelic) plants and fungi, including psilocybin mushrooms, iboga, ayahuasca, and cacti.1 As our community confronts record-shattering opioid abuse, depression, and suicide, decriminalization represents a huge step forward for public health and criminal justice. Designated a “breakthrough therapy” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), psilocybin mushrooms and other natural psychedelics are profoundly effective in treating these ailments. We must take action to prevent opioid deaths. In the month of May alone, nearly 170 of our friends, family members, and neighbors in Massachusetts lost their lives to opioid overdoses as these deaths continue to spike nationwide [1]. A 2017 study of 44,000 Americans by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical School found that psychedelic use is associated with a 40% reduced risk of opioid abuse [2]. Ibogaine treatments, derived from a West African plant, helped people with opioid addiction substantially reduce “withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful” and achieve “sustained reduced use in dependent individuals” over 12 months [3, 4]. Depression and suicide are also ravaging Massachusetts communities. Our state’s millennials have the highest rates of depression for their age group in the nation, and nearly one in five residents suffer from depression [5]. A 2020 meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials dating back two decades found that psychedelic-assisted therapy is highly effective in treating PTSD, depression, anxiety linked to terminal illness, and anxiety linked to autism [6]. A November 2020 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found one in two patients put major depression in remission after only two psilocybin therapy sessions—four times more effective than convention medication [7]. Other studies show entheogen treatment can substantially reduce distress, suicidal planning, and suicidal ideation [8]. For patients with a terminal illness, double-blind trials show a single dose of psilocybin mushrooms can substantially reduce long-term anxiety and depression with a nearly 80% clinical response rate [9]. There are many other public health crises these compounds can alleviate. Smoking tobacco kills one in five of our friends, family members, and neighbors in Massachusetts. These addictions also cost taxpayers hundreds of millions in Medicaid expenses each year [10]. A 2017 study by Johns Hopkins faculty found that smoking patients achieved an 80% abstinence rate over six months after psilocybin therapy—a 45% higher success rate than the most effective FDA-approved smoking cessation drug [11]. Moreover, thousands of Massachusetts residents suffer from the debilitating condition “cluster headaches,” severe migraines that drive many to suicide or opioids. A study by the American Academy of Neurology interviewed patients who had tried psilocybin in the absence of known cures. Five in seven reported psilocybin ended the headaches; one in two reported a complete termination of symptoms [12]. By decriminalizing psychedelic plants, Massachusetts can mainstream harm-reduction strategies as therapists and health providers embrace these compounds for physical, psychological, and spiritual relief. Denver (CO), Oakland (CA), Santa Cruz (CA), and Ann Arbor (MI) have all recently 1 Our definition of entheogenic plants, based on the term “entheogen,” conceived by Carl Ruck, Jonathan Ott, and a working group of anthropologists and ethnobotanists in 1979, is “the full spectrum of plants, fungi, and natural materials containing indole amines, tryptamines, phenethylamines, including psilocybin, ayahuasca, cacti, and iboga.”

decriminalized entheogens. Both Oregon and Washington D.C. voters approved ballot measures to decriminalize entheogen plants by overwhelming margins, while California’s lawmakers are actively considering legislation. Entheogens are already legally accessible in some manner in Canada, the UK, and Native American reservations across the United States. Other nations that have decriminalized entheogens include Brazil, Portugal, Jamaica, Samoa, the Netherlands, and Peru. Obtaining spores to grow psilocybin mushrooms is currently legal in 47 states—including Massachusetts. Cambridge is extremely likely to follow Somerville’s lead, and many city counselors in Boston are similarly supportive. Eight state lawmakers and counting have committed to sponsoring our team’s state task force bill to study treating controlled substances as an issue of public health rather than only relying on incarceration. Since these psychedelic plants are non-addictive, used rarely and intentionally, and impossible to overdose on, equitable access has not generated any measurable increases in crime, hospitalizations, or abuse anywhere that has decriminalized. Indeed, even as crime rates rise nationally, a 2018 study suggests that psilocybin use combined with psychological support decreases authoritarian tendencies. A 2014 study of over 25,000 people found entheogen therapies also reduce the likelihood of recidivism [13, 14]. Decriminalization eases the load of law enforcement, making our communities safer and healthier places. The majority of people who try entheogens will only do so a few times throughout their lives, making this a class of plants far easier to regulate than cannabis. This rarity means that locally-based dispensaries are unlikely to become mainstream any time soon as patients’ needs are met by individual therapists and informal person-to-person exchange. This makes decriminalization a strong end in itself to promoting safe and equitable community use as formal medicalization evolves through further FDA trials and federal drug law reform. But the time for action is now. Somerville has a chance to empower our neighbors, friends, and loved ones to seek the physical and spiritual relief they need and put public health above incarcerating people even in cases of addiction and abuse of controlled substances. Sincerely and graciously, Somerville Members of Bay Staters & Decriminalize Nature Massachusetts: Alex Karazik, Sarah Hinzman, Bruce Ridgeway, Todd Brugman, Amanda Pierce, James Davis, James Acer, Shana Andherson, Amy Lou Stein, Elizabeth Devane, Joe Welker References 1. Data Brief: Opioid-Related Overdose deaths among Massachusetts Residents. June 2020. Web. 2. Pisano, V. D., Putnam, N. P., Kramer, H. M., Franciotti, K. J., Halpern, J. H., Holden, S. C. (2017). The association of psychedelic use and opioid use disorders among illicit users in the U.S. Journal of Psychopharmacology. Web. 3. Brown, T.K., & Alper, K. (2018). Treatment of opioid use disorder with ibogaine: detoxification and drug use Outcomes. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Web. 4. Noeller, G.E., Frampton, C.M. & Yazar-Klosinski, B. (2018). Ibogaine treatment outcomes for opioid dependence from a twelve-month follow-up observational study. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Web. 5. Cohan, A. (2019). Massachusetts millennials have highest rate of depression in the U.S. Boston Herald. Web. 6. Luoma, J.B., Chwyl, C., Bathje, G.J., Davis, A.K., Lancelotta, R. (2020). A Meta-Analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials of 5. Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. Web. 7. Davis, A.K., Barrett, F.S., May, D.G., et al. (4 November, 2020). Effects of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy on Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of the American Medical Journal (JAMA) Psychiatry. Web. 8. Hendricks, P.S., Johnson, M.W., Griffiths, R.R. (2016). Psilocybin, psychological distress, and suicidality. Journal of Psychopharmacology. Web. 9. Griffiths, R., Johnson, M.W., et. al. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial. Journal of Psychopharmacology. Web. 10. Richard, P., West, K., Ku, L. (2012). The ROI of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Program in Mass. PLOS ONE Journal. Web. 11. Johnson, M.W., Garcia-Romeu, A., Griffiths, R.R. (2017). Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Web. 12. Sewell, R. A., Halpern, J.H., Pope, H.G. (2006). Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD. American Academy of Neurology. Web. 13. Lyons, T. and Carhart-Harris, R.L. (2018). Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Journal of Psychopharmacology. Web. 14. Hendricks, P.S., Clark, C.B., Johnson, M.W. (2014). Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision. Journal of Psychopharmacology. Web.