How psychedelics legalization debates could differ from cannabis
Addiction August 13, 2024 Beau Kilmer 3 citations
As more U.S. states and localities consider alternatives to prohibiting psychedelics for non-clinical use, policy debates will likely differ from cannabis legalization. While parallels exist—over two dozen jurisdictions have deprioritized enforcement, and Oregon and Colorado passed initiatives legalizing supervised psilocybin use—psychedelics produce different effects and have distinct market dynamics. Unlike cannabis, where frequent users drive consumption, about 60 percent of psychedelic use days come from those using five or fewer days per month. The author endorses the point that effective regulation of cannabis was hampered by limited federal-state coordination and warns that without federal action, psychedelics may follow a similar for-profit commercial model.