Category: Blog Post

The absence, over the last almost two years of media reporting, of prohibitionist opposition to the national psychedelic decriminalization movement similar to the anti-cannabis movement has been a mystery.[…]

I joined the drug policy reform movement in 1993 specifically with the goal of legalizing psychedelics, so I was glad to hear from Matthews. From May to September, we worked on an initiative in collaboration with Colorado attorneys and policy experts that could pass the Board of Elections’ requirements. In October, the board certified the language. Matthews’ team, the Decriminalize Denver campaign, went out into the Denver winter to collect the signatures necessary (4,726) to get the initiative on the ballot, which were approved in January.[…]

Discussions of legalizing psychedelics to date consist of more questions than answers. The medical model is insufficient but there have been few specific suggestions as to how to proceed. I propose some foundational principles.[…]

Dear Readers: It is time to conceptualize the structure of legal access to psychedelics. I started this blog in 2010 with the intention of laying the foundation for the development of Psychedelic Law, an examination of the unique characteristics of psychedelics, with the goal of extricating them from the antiquated “narcotics control” model to which[…]

Madmen Rule You: the DEA and the legal logic of permanent cannabis prohibition (It’s insane to try to ban a plant) (© Noah Potter, 2012. Originally published at psychedeliclaw.com on April 19, 2012) The author gratefully acknowledges the conceptual clarity provided by Buford Terrell, who, by identifying Grinspoon v DEA and Gonzales v Oregon, made this article possible. […]

After writing the original version of the text later published as Madmen Rule You, the subject matter crystallized further in my mind. Cannabis prohibition is a question of an evidentiary standard. The DEA rejects “anecdotal evidence,” i.e. reports by patients that they experience relief, as evidence that there is a medical use for cannabis. In[…]

Following, after a brief introduction, are two comments on the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week in the proceeding captioned Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration. In its decision the DC Circuit denied a petition by a coalition of drug law reform activists seeking to overturn the DEA’s July 2011[…]

A recent op-ed in the Times Union (Albany) demonstrates the essential logic of the camp arrayed against therapeutic uses of psychedelics: society must be protected from the doctors. Keep control over psychedelics in the hands of the police. The op-ed calls for all reasonable men to oppose the proposed medical marijuana law because of the […]