Psychedelics Primer

California lawmakers are considering a bill that would legalize possession, use and sharing of several psychedelic drugs. Here’s a look at the substances covered by Senate Bill 519:

• MAGIC MUSHROOMS or SHROOMS: Psilocybin and psilocyn are the mind-altering agents found in certain wild mushrooms. They work by imitating serotonin, causing hallucinations and a fusion of reality with fantasy.
• ACID or LSD: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) causes powerful hallucinations and higher blood pressure. LSD is typically sold as a synthetic street drug. Its natural source is the ergot fungus which grows on grain crops.
• ECSTASY or MOLLY: A pharmaceutical company invented 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) 100 years ago as a treatment to control bleeding. Now a common party drug, MDMA causes euphoric feelings by enhancing the release of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.
• SPECIAL K or SUPER ACID: Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic. It causes a feeling of dissociation from one’s pain and environment. It works by blocking glutamate receptors in the brain that cause depression when over-activated. Some psychiatrists give low doses of ketamine to treat severe depression. Law enforcement officials consider it a date-rape drug because it’s been used to facilitate sexual assaults.
• MESCAL: Mescaline can be derived from certain types of cactus plants, such as peyote and San Pedro. However, peyote is a sacred medicine in religious ceremonies for some Native Americans, including the Navajo Nation. So, the bill only legalizes mescaline not sourced from peyote, which is a vulnerable species. Mescaline is also produced synthetically. It works by activating dopamine and serotonin receptors, causing euphoria, anxiety and hallucinations.
• AYAHUASCA or THE SPIRIT MOLECULE: Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) can be found in many plants, including reed canary grass. Similar to mushrooms, it works by acting upon serotonin receptors, causing hallucinations.
• IBOGA: The roots of the shrub iboga are the natural source for the psychedelic substance ibogaine. For members of the Bwiti religion in Africa, ibogaine is integral to ceremonies marking the beginning of one’s teenage years. Ibogaine imitates serotonin, causing hallucinations. It has recently been explored to treat opiate withdrawal.

Beyond PTSD, psychedelic drugs also offer promise for depression and anxiety treatments. A Johns Hopkins study from last year observed how adults with depression responded to two doses of psilocybin — and they thrived. More than 70% of participants saw an improvement in their mental health. The psychedelics outperformed other currently existing antidepressants four-fold. In another study, a participant who had taken many anti-anxiety medications that had never helped his depression finally got better after facilitated therapy sessions with psilocybin. He was stuck thinking the same negative thoughts over and over, and the psilocybin helped him cut that circuit short so he could heal.

Several research universities have invested in studying psychedelics’ medical potential, especially in the past two years. The Neuroscape Psychedelics Division at UC San Francisco formed in March 2021 with $6.4 million in private funding. The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, formed in September 2020, is supported by $17 million in private funding.

While many California lawmakers said they were persuaded that psychedelics could be beneficial in some medical settings, some were concerned about one phrase in Wiener’s bill: “social sharing.”

‘Social Sharing’ Debate

The legislation allows adults to exchange psychedelics with each other, so long as no money is involved. It would essentially sanction party drugs, argued Republican Sen. Pat Bates of Laguna Niguel.

“If we want to confine it, specify it for its therapeutic use with our veterans, I totally support that, but I do believe that this steps way over that,” she said, before voting “no.”

But Wiener argues that social sharing is an essential element of legalization.

“If people are going to use psychedelics, it’s better for them to use it with someone else because, even though people overwhelmingly use these drugs safely, anyone can have a bad reaction to any kind of drug, legal or illegal,” he said.

But social sharing also opens up liability questions that concern Mitchell, the neuroscientist. “Unless there is regulation, who’s to say that somebody’s shrooms that they pick themselves in some field are the right thing? And if they share it, and it’s the wrong thing, and somebody dies… who’s to blame, and how do we fix that?” said Mitchell.

As decriminalization movements gain traction on the West Coast, some Native American groups in the Southwest remain concerned it could encroach on their traditional practices. The peyote cactus — a natural source of the psychedelic drug mescaline — is central to religious ceremonies for the Navajo Nation. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that some Navajo were upset by cities considering ordinances to decriminalize peyote. They fear it would diminish the natural supply of peyote, which is already a vulnerable species.

In response to this concern, Wiener’s bill would not decriminalize mescaline sourced from peyote. While it would still be illegal to possess a peyote cactus, the bill would allow mescaline from other types of cacti.

“We made this decision to honor the sovereign rights of Native Peyote practitioners, who point out that the peyote cactus is a sacrament and the peyote gardens in Texas have a dwindling supply of naturally-growing peyote,” Catie Stewart, Wiener’s spokesperson, wrote in an email to CalMatters.

In 2019, Oakland became the first city in California to decriminalize all psychedelic plants. Less than a year later, Santa Cruz passed a similar measure.

But those are some of the most progressive enclaves in California. Whether the whole state is ready to embrace psychedelics is a question that will be answered this summer, as the state Assembly considers Wiener’s bill. The Assembly has a bloc of moderate Democrats — some of whom represent swing districts — who sometimes side with Republicans to kill liberal legislation.

“If the bill doesn’t make it through the Assembly, we will try again,” Wiener said. “The issue is not going away, and sometimes it takes a few tries to get a bill through.”