The Big ShroomAmerican Governments Drug legalization has been quite the hot topic in America these last few years, though most of it has been about the recreational use of marijuana popping up on states ballots like the flowers of the coming spring. However, despite the rampant weed press, it would only be a matter of time until other illicit substances were brought to the debate table. And that day is today. Colorado, one of the first states to legalize marijuana recreationally, has turned its eye to the clinical use of psilocybin, better known as magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms, or shrooms, were banned by the Nixon administration during their war on drugs through the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (Peters 2013). Since then, it has remained federally illegal, classified as a schedule 1 drug.
Schedule classification is handed out at the federal level. Different drugs and chemicals are rated into five categories dependent upon factors like drug abuse potential, long/short term harm, and accepted medical use. These categories are called schedules with schedule V meaning they have a low potential for abuse, little physical harm, and high medical use. Meanwhile, schedule I drugs are the other extreme meaning high potential abuse, high chance of physical harm, and no medical potential what so ever (https://www.dea.gov/drug-scheduling). Many people in society are content with the federal scheduling, and for good reason. It provides a level of protection from potentially hazardous substances and gives a strong case for proper criminalization. After all, it’s better to have some entity out there identifying what is dangerous for us as opposed to no entity at all, right? However, many states have taken issue with the current classification. On one end, the scheduling seems quite backwards. For example, drugs like meth, cocaine, oxycontin, fentanyl, and Adderall are all classified as schedule II. This means they can be, and are, used as prescription drugs. This has led to 218,000 overdose deaths since 1999 by just oxycontin (and similar opioids https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html). Meanwhile drugs like marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, and ecstasy are classified as a schedule I drug meaning there is a very high chance of long term harm and death. However, these drugs have staggering lower death rates rating from 0 to the teens per year per drug (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose.html). Discrepancies like these have lead many states to draft and follow drug codes of their own with disregard for DEA Scheduling. And, surprisingly they may even have a case to set their own laws. Drug regulation may be a vast overreach of federal power as there is no place in the constitution where substance authority was directly handed to them. And to this point, the jury is still out on it. It feels like this authority might one day come down to a Supreme Court decision. The states have used/ are using medical classification as a pathway for recreational marijuana. It would be very interesting to see if other substances will follow suit. I wonder just how far they can press their luck before the DEA comes knocking down their door. So why would Colorado advocate for a substance that the federal government would deem more dangerous to society than meth? Well, for medical purposes of course! You see since the banning, there has been a shocking low amount of research done on the drug to really understand its effects. The drug was, more or less, locked away in a vault, far from society, and also far from researchers. This has made the gleaning of empirical evidence difficult on both sides of the argument. However, there has been a reemergence of research recently out of the University of Texas and John Hopkins University with compelling results. Early studies show psilocybin having positive effects for smokers trying to quit, those with depression, and even though terminally ill with death anxiety. Science has yet to reach a verdict on the subject with such few studies done, but the Colorado citizens believe in the early research enough (and perhaps their own personal experience) to petition for the ballot. Perhaps they are trying to seize an opportunity as this last election may have given them a way to circumvent the federal criminal standing. President Trump, love him or hate him, has delegated the responsibility of regulating substances to the state regardless of what the DEA says. Trump has done little to stop the proliferation of the green fever (marijuana) sweeping the nation, and it appears the clinical use of psilocybin may follow suit. After all, the man has a lot on his plate. I can’t blame him for overlooking the occasional mushroom.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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