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California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

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Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#131

Post by lurquer »

kf6nux wrote: post #114
wk_end wrote: post #48

I strongly support decriminalization, but I'm curious: are people in California getting arrested for the possession of psychedelics for personal use in any real numbers? That is, is this bill going to change anything on the ground, or is it just a step in the right direction?

Fewer criminal statutes is almost always a good thing. Discriminatory enforcement is a huge problem. My local Police Chief told me he thinks of discriminatory enforcement as a good thing, so you can only solve it as a problem by removing the ineffective/undesirable law.

You can’t cut someone’s hair in California without a license.

You can’t sell corrective eyeglasses without a license.

You can’t buy (or sell) penicillin without licenses.

I could go on.

California has thousands of ridiculous, out-dated, laws.

Yet, I see no groundswell of support for getting rid of them.

My point is, this isn’t about generic ‘decriminalization’ or libertarianism or personal liberty.

Rather, it’s about intoxicants.

It is worth stopping and wondering what is behind this trend of increasing the number of intoxicated people (whether it be through recreational drugs or prescribed drugs.)

I don’t know the answer, but you’re whistling past the graveyard by telling yourself it’s simply about cleaning up or reforming the criminal code. If it were, we would be starting with truly harmless activities such as taking money to put a weave in your girlfriends hair without a license (misdemeanor).

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#132

Post by LatteLazy »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #23

Probably 95% of people can handle psychedelics. That last 5% are not going to handle psychedelics well. I'm talking about the people on Market and 6th with schizophrenia. If you give someone with schizophrenia mushrooms they will have a total break with reality and might not come back easily. This is going to make the street people of CA even that more crazy.

Do you have any actual basis for claiming people with schizophrenia will have a "total break"?

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#133

Post by zenron »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #95
splithalf wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is peoples’ notions of justice are capricious and savage. The draconian laws over psychedelics represents yesteryear’s popular conception of “true justice.”

The legal system will always trail behind the reality on the societal ground out there - that's almost by definition, and you actually kinda want them to be quite cautious and thorough before they make decisions. But you also need to watch for outliers - laws that are WAY past their prime, and should have been put to pasture long ago. Basically, the legal system needs a garbage collection mechanism.

"The Breitbart Doctrine is the idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture.} [cited from Wikipedia]

Andrew was a man ahead of his time.

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#136

Post by dang »

sergiotapia wrote: post #27

Doesn't california have a massive drug problem and literal armies of drug addicts shitting in the streets and harassing families and tax-payers? How will this help?

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27372101.

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#137

Post by e40 »

sergiotapia wrote: post #27

Doesn't california have a massive drug problem and literal armies of drug addicts shitting in the streets and harassing families and tax-payers? How will this help?

No way to know, really, but I'd wager the number of alcohol vs LSD users among the homeless on the streets is 99:1. Also, I've read a lot about homelessness and talked to a few of them, and I've never heard once that LSD, et al are even on the radar.

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#138

Post by heavyset_go »

bananabreakfast wrote: post #104
stormbrew wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems much more likely that the people shitting in the streets are actually people who have nowhere else to shit. That's what happens when you have a lot of homeless people in a very urbanized area and don't do anything to help them except 'kindly' pretend they don't exist.

Unfortunately, they usually have plenty of acceptable places to defecate. The fact that they are not always used is mostly due to the effects of coming down off of opioids. See the Trainspotting toilet scene as an example.

In Manhattan, public bathrooms are scarce and the ones that do exist close when the parks do, and businesses hire security guards to check receipts and make sure homeless people don't use their bathrooms.

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#139

Post by staticautomatic »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #23

Probably 95% of people can handle psychedelics. That last 5% are not going to handle psychedelics well. I'm talking about the people on Market and 6th with schizophrenia. If you give someone with schizophrenia mushrooms they will have a total break with reality and might not come back easily. This is going to make the street people of CA even that more crazy.

You say that as if they don’t already have easy access to drugs.

Re: California Bill to Decriminalize Psychedelics Is Approved by Senate

#140

Post by fsiefken »

ravenstine wrote: post #6

I get LSD and psilocybin, but why ketamine? In either case, I feel like this shouldn't have tried to include ketamine since the perception of it might jeopardize the bill.

yes, i remember the tragic story of marcia moore

https://erowid.org/culture/characters/moore_marcia/moore_mar...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcia_Moore

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