The city of Oakland breeds hell-raisers. Visionary writers such as Jack London and Amy Tan have called the Town home, as did radical politician Earl Warren, who paved the way for eliminating segregation in schools. Actress Zendaya is a local legend in the making. Then, of course, there are the Black Panthers and MC Hammer and his pants.
Movements don’t happen in places where people are comfortable with the way things are happening around them. Movements do happen in Oakland, where people aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo.
That’s been the case time and again, including Oakland’s treatment of marijuana, as it was one of the first places to decriminalize it long before legalization swept over larger swaths of America. And once recreational use arrived, it became the first city to put an equity program in place that prioritized permits and support for people of color who had previously been arrested for selling weed in the illegal market.
Now it appears that Oakland’s next sights are on psychedelic plants. The City Council unanimously passed a resolution in June decriminalizing psilocybin mushrooms and other “entheogenic plants,” such as ayahuasca and iboga. This came on the heels of Denver’s move to decriminalize solely psilocybin mushrooms just weeks before. Under the resolution, Oakland law enforcement will not investigate and prosecute adults over 21 possessing magic mushrooms and other psychoactive plants.
The news begs the question, Is this the next frontier in the drug-legalization movement? And if so, will Oakland be the city to lead it?
There’s an openness and an out-of-the-box type of thinking present in Oakland’s culture, making the Town a candidate for change.
Growing up here, I found that pushing the boundaries of mainstream culture was part of my life. A few memories: I watched Malcolm X in the theater when it came out in ’92 on a junior high field trip; I knew when someone was being sexist and told them so; I learned my dad had dropped acid with Owsley Stanley in the ’60s. As I grew older and lived in other parts of the country and the world, I realized what a benefit that was. There’s an openness and an out-of-the-box type of thinking present in Oakland’s culture, making the Town a candidate for change.
And that’s what happened in the biggity O when educational entheogenic-plants organization Decriminalize Nature Oakland teamed up with Oakland councilman Noel Gallo, local police, and the City Council’s Public Safety Committee to create a resolution for decriminalization, a process that’s been in the works for about six months.
Oakland resident Carlos Plazola cofounded Decriminalize Nature Oakland with other advocates of entheogenic-plant medicine in January after he endured a revelatory magic-mushroom experience that helped him source his anxiety and anger issues to a childhood trauma. Councilman Gallo sponsored the resolution, saying he sees the plants as another form of medicine that people can try when other treatments fail to help them. He also said he personally knows about the healing powers of plants, as his Native American grandmother used them for traditional medicine.
Nearly 100 people were in the City Council chambers in support of the vote, some sharing their stories about how psychedelic plants have helped them with addiction and depression.
“Out of the gate we wanted to focus on the sacredness of the plant and the need for safe and responsible use,” Plazola said. “Harm-reduction conversations need to happen before we talk about distribution, so we want to start the conversation with the messaging of good practice.”
While there’s a lot more research to be done, some studies have shown psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy’s efficacy helps reduce depression and anxiety for cancer patients as well as alcohol dependence. Santa Cruz–based MAPS has long researched psychedelic medicine, and FDA-supported, large-scale clinical trials exploring psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression are underway in North America and Europe.
But what puts the magic in magic mushrooms?
“Psilocybin works on the serotonergic pathway, and in individuals who suffer from depression and anxiety, we know that safely elevating serotonin levels can help treat these conditions,” said Oakland-born Jennifer Elle Roberts, MD, integrative psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
Michelle Janikian, author of the upcoming book Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, recommends that inexperienced mushroom users start with a low/medium dose of 0.1–0.5 dried grams and around two dried grams for the best experience.
“The psychedelic experience takes some getting used to, and there are some ‘tripping navigation skills’ to learn before diving into a high-dose experience, which I would define as three to five grams of dried mushrooms,” she said.
But since the resolution doesn’t authorize commercial sales or manufacturing of the plants, how do people get them legally? Plazola says that that will be worked out in subsequent years, like cannabis was. I’ve always known shrooms to be grown in Oregon. But cannabis educator and garden consultant Penny Barthel says psilocybe cubensis grows well throughout the northwest, including the Bay Area.
“The key is moisture and shade, so coastal areas in the Bay can offer good growing conditions for many mushrooms, including psilocybe,” she said.
Oranges, grapes, cannabis, magic mushrooms: thank you, Mother Nature.
Driving a car is another variable. After the passing of the resolution, you can still be arrested for driving under the influence. If you’ve ever macrodosed on mushrooms, you know that driving on them isn’t wise. CBD microdosing may be accepted now, but psychedelics are different.
How similar is this to the decriminalization of cannabis? It’s similar in that what’s been known as an illegal drug is being recognized for its benefits, as opposed to getting people high. Mind-altering drugs have long been used as a form of medicine, from Native American rituals to California’s pioneering of medical marijuana in ’96. And in grassroots fashion, this change is starting locally, like cannabis did.
While the plants and fungi remain illegal at the state and federal level, the movement may be spreading. Decriminalize Nature Oakland has partnered with local agencies, such as Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee, to create an infrastructure that can inspire other cities to follow suit.
Nationally, activists are working on the ground in 30 states, and some have already drafted resolutions with their city councils. From there, many expect attempts to get the issue on the 2020 ballot in various states.
But in practice, as Madison Margolin—cannabis journalist and cofounder of DoubleBlind magazine—explains, “The difference between psychedelics and cannabis is that at the same time, we’re already seeing substances like MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy or Molly) or psilocybin on the path to becoming government-approved prescription medicines in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.”
Maybe this is more than a renaissance. Maybe it’s a revolution.
It’s taken this long for the US to move past the Puritan response to psychedelic use and abuse in the ’60s. Michael Pollan, the author of national bestseller How To Change Your Mind, warns us of the potential downfalls of jumping into psychedelic medicine and legalized recreational use too soon. If you’ve ever taken mushrooms, you may know about its potential, medically or spiritually.
You may know that they taste like dirt, can make you nauseous, and can create uncontrollable laughing and hallucinations. You may know that if you’re 16 and shrooming, you will decorate a parking meter in Montclair with Band-Aids, have a good barf, and then retreat to the Oakland hills, with their undulating redwoods, until your high gently tapers off. You may learn something about yourself, become conscious of the subconscious, and embrace your existence. You may heal.
No doubt, psychedelics are powerful.
Another thing that might happen in Oakland is the creation of legal safe places at which psychedelic medicine can be administered. Already, San Francisco nonprofit ERIE (Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education) co-hosts monthly “integration circles,” where people talk about their psychedelic experiences and how those experiences affected them. But, as has been the case for decades, most drug-induced experiences have taken place in the privacy of people’s homes due to a fear of getting caught.
While emergency rooms are equipped to handle bad trips, the main benefit to a guided experience—whether at a group retreat, in a clinical trial, with an underground guide, or a with “trip sitter”—is safety.
“Tripping can be sad, scary, and anxiety-inducing to the point of paranoia,” said Janikian. “Yet at the same time, the main ‘tripping navigation skill’ is to relax, or ‘Trust, Let Go, Be Open.’”
A place like Berkeley’s Sage Integrative Health center could become a safe place of sorts if they added guide-led experiences followed by reflective therapy to their menu, minus the hefty price.
Clinical referrals would be required for this experience and should be available to people of all ethnicities, genders, and income levels — which, I believe, Oakland would do.
But full legalization would need to happen first. And yes, many people think this could happen next, especially in power-to-the-people Oakland.