We looked into our crystal bong and this is what we saw.

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Recently, researchers Christopher P. Holstege and Rita Farah unveiled the results of their study on the increase in poison center calls for mushroom consumption. In “Psilocybin Exposures Reported to U.S. Poison Centers: National Trends Over a Decade,” the researchers explored the rising trend of accidental exposure to psilocybin between January 1, 2024-December 31, 2022. Holstege is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics and Farah is a Researcher of Epidemiology, both of which work at the University of Virginia.

Over a 10-year period, there were 4,055 exposure incidents recorded by the National Poison Data System, and 2,667 (65.8%) of those incidents involved adolescents or young adults between 13-25. From this number of people, 1,176 (75.3%) were adolescents, and 797 (72.1%) were young adults. One of researchers’ noteworthy observations was that cases didn’t rise between 2013-2018, but increased after 2019, and tripled in 2022.

Holstege and Farah co-wrote an analysis of their research, which was originally published in The Conversation.

Researchers noted that in May 2019, Denver, Colorado became the first city to decriminalize psilocybin, which was followed shortly after by Oakland, California, in June 2019. This trend continued with various other cities across the U.S., with Santa Cruz, California, in January 2020, Washington D.C. in November 2020, Sommerville, Massachusetts in January 2021, Seattle, Washington in October 2021, and Detroit, Michigan in November 2021. Additionally, Oregon was the first state to decriminalize psilocybin and introduce a legal therapy treatment program in November 2020. This was followed by the state of Colorado in November 2022.

Farah is an epidemiologist, and both of them worked together to identify potential harms. “Part of our job is to track public health risks related to poisons and to create efforts to prevent them,” the researchers wrote. “We are both concerned about the increase in calls to poison control centers related to psilocybin.”

However, the information collected by the National Poison Data System covers calls from across the country, making it impossible to know where exactly the poison calls came from.

The data shows that a majority of the reported calls between both adolescents and young adults resulted in the need for medical attention at a hospital or treatment facility. A majority of these cases included people who were experiencing “hallucinations, delusions, agitation, rapid heart rate, and confusion.”

Holstege and Farah expressed their overall concern for youth based on their observations. “Our findings correspond with a review of more than 30 studies that demonstrates a similar rise in acute cannabis poisoning among children and adolescents beginning after marijuana was legalized in 1996,” the researchers concluded. “We find this particularly alarming, since the states that legalized and cities that decriminalized psilocybin don’t allow anyone under 21 to use it or buy it. This suggests young people are getting it illegally.”

A study recently published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal shows that there has also been an increase in law enforcement seizures of psilocybin over the past few years as well. “We found that the number of shroom seizures and the total weight of shrooms seized annually increased through 2022, and the greatest weight of shrooms seized was in the West,” said study co-author Joseph J. Palamar told High Times. Out of 4,526 seizure reports between 2017-2022, the numbers increased from 402 in 2017, to 1,396 in 2022.

While it’s clear that illegal mushroom cultivation and sales needs to be reduced in order to reduce access for adolescents and young adults, the legal psilocybin industry is struggling. Oregon’s psilocybin therapy treatment service program just passed its one-year mark, but has encountered challenges such as limited customers, partially due to high prices and advertising restrictions. Less than a year into its business, one psilocybin treatment center called The Journey has already closed up shop.

Across the U.S., researchers continue to study psilocybin to determine its effectiveness as a treatment for many medical conditions. One study that was published in Clinical Case Reports earlier in June showed that both psilocybin and MDMA can be beneficial in treating symptoms of long-COVID, also called longhauler’s. Sufferers of this condition usually experience anxiety, depression, headaches, and struggles with cognition.

Also in June, University of California, Berkeley announced that it will be embarking on a study to observe how psilocybin affects human perception. It’s the first psilocybin study that UC Berkeley is conducting using human subjects. “We have this incredible opportunity to characterize the psychedelic experience in real time—while it’s happening—using modern neuroimaging methods,” said UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics director, Michael Silver. “Understanding the actions of psychedelics at a neuroscientific level will generate insights into how they’re working as medicines and will hopefully help us develop more effective treatments for mental health disorders. It will also shed light on some of the fundamental mysteries of the human brain, mind and consciousness and how they relate to each other.”

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The American Medical Association (AMA) voted to support drug decriminalization recently on June 12. During the AMA’s annual House of Delegates meeting that was held in Chicago, Illinois, said MD/PhD candidate Ryan Englander. “The war on drugs is quite reminiscent of the phrase, ‘The beatings will continue until morale improves,’” Englander said. “We have tried for decades to criminalize our way out of a substance use crisis in this country, and it has not worked … We need to move to something different and better, something that actually works.”

Previously, language from an AMA Board of Trustees report asked that the association “continue to monitor the legal and public health effects of state and federal policies to reclassify criminal offenses for drug possession for personal use.”

During the recent meeting, delegates voted 345-171 to adopt the new position on its drug policy, which updates the association’s stance. Now it seeks for the “elimination of criminal penalties for drug possession for personal use as part of a larger set of related public health and legal reforms designed to improve carefully selected outcomes.”

Englander stated that there is enough evidence of how decriminalization affects residents, citing how Oregon recriminalized hard drugs but Portugal has experienced better success. He stated that Oregon was “instructive, but so is the [experience of] Portugal, where that country decriminalized or removed penalties for personal possession of drugs for personal use, and they were actually able to get people into treatment, and mortality did drop. So there are models that we can use that can work,” Englander explained.

American Society of Addiction Medicine speaker Stephen Taylor proposed that it be sent to the reference committee, stating that “there is, in fact, evidence that decriminalization can have public health benefits if it is done correctly. We would suggest that we have yet to see it done correctly.”

Of course, there were numerous delegates in opposition of endorsing decriminalization as well. “Our policy must reflect the evidence, and currently, the evidence does not support broad decriminalization,” said Bobby Mukkamala, AMA president-elect. “We just have to look at the Oregon experience. In 2020, Oregon decriminalized the possession of just small amounts of illicit drugs with the goal of getting people into treatment, but unfortunately, the outcome was quite different. There was no reduction in mortality and there was no increase in access to treatment… The board doesn’t believe it’s wise to have the AMA support policies that do not have more robust evidence behind them.”

American College of Physicians delegate Marianne Parshley commented that although Oregon appeared to improve when the decriminalization law was passed in 2020, fentanyl use and associated deaths also rose. From her perspective, recriminalization was a way to get bipartisan support for more funding and improving drug treatment programs. “So, it’s complex,” Parshley said. “We need to pay attention to the fact that [the situation] doesn’t instantaneously change if you pass decriminalization and support for treatment.”

The AMA’s drug policies have shifted over the past few years. In June 2022 during another annual House of Delegates meeting, the AMA changed its policy on expungement and called on states to implement record-cleaning services. “This affects young people aspiring to careers in medicine as well as many others who are denied housing, education, loans and job opportunities,” said Scott Ferguson, an AMA trustee. “It simply isn’t fair to ruin a life based on actions that result in convictions but are subsequently legalized or decriminalized.”

At last year’s annual House of Delegates meeting, the AMA adopted a new policy to advocate for substances like psilocybin and MDMA for psychiatric disorder treatments. “The AMA believes that scientifically valid and well-controlled clinical trials are necessary to assess the safety and effectiveness of all new drugs, including the potential use of psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disorders,” said Jack Resneck, AMA Immediate Past President, at the time. “The AMA appreciates that lawmakers want to help address the mental health crisis in the U.S., but there are other straightforward approaches that don’t thwart drug safety assessment and regulation, such as increasing coverage and removing barriers to care for evidence-based treatments.”

A report from the Board of Trustees, which was published prior to the 2024 House of Delegates meeting, addressed its disapproval of endorsing decriminalization. “The Board of Trustees believes that it is 1 premature to recommend decriminalizing drug possession offenses as a public health benefit in the 2 absence of evidence demonstrating public health benefits,” the report stated. During the meeting, Mukkamala spoke on behalf of the board and stated that the AMA “must reflect the evidence, and currently, the evidence does not support broad decriminalization.” The board did, however, support the expungement policy change.

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The city of Dallas, Texas will soon discuss whether or not to add a measure on the November ballot that would decriminalize small amounts of cannabis.

Recently in a news release, Dallas Councilmember Chad West announced that the Dallas Freedom Act will be proposed on June 26. “Voters in our city and across the country want to decriminalize marijuana,” said West. “Our already burdened police should focus their attention on serious crime, not arresting people with small amounts of marijuana. Bringing this to voters through a City Council-proposed Charter amendment instead of a petition will save the city time and resources.”

The proposal was accelerated through a petition which collected more than 50,000 signatures through the help of Ground Game Texas. If passed into law, it would prevent police from giving tickets or arresting people for possessing less than four ounces of cannabis through Class A or Class B misdemeanors.  “Voters in our city and across the country want to decriminalize marijuana,” said West. “Our already burdened police should focus their attention on serious crime, not arresting people with small amounts of marijuana.”

Ground Game Texas has assisted numerous other Texas cities in passing decriminalization, such as Austin, Denton, Killeen, and San Marcos. However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently sued some of those cities (specifically Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos) for passing decriminalization bills at the end of January. “I will not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law and promote the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities,” Paxton said. “This unconstitutional action by municipalities demonstrates why Texas must have a law to ‘follow the law.’ It’s quite simple: the legislature passes every law after a full debate on the issues, and we don’t allow cities the ability to create anarchy by picking and choosing the laws they enforce.”

Former Ground Game Texas executive director, Julie Oliver, accused Paxton of fighting against the will of the people. “Ken Paxton’s lawsuits represent an anti-democratic assault on the constitutional authority of Texas Home Rule cities to set local law enforcement priorities,” said Oliver at the time. “In each of the cities sued, a supermajority of voters adopted a policy to deprioritize marijuana enforcement in order to reduce racially biased law enforcement outcomes and save scarce public resources for higher priority public safety needs.”

The Dallas Observer asked West how he thinks Paxton would react if Dallas decriminalized cannabis. “I would hope the attorney general would support and respect the strong will of Dallas residents on this issue. However, based on past actions, I am not optimistic,” West said.

Alongside West, councilmembers Adam Bazaldua, Jaime Resendez, and Zarin Gracey are also in support of decriminalization in Dallas. Bazaldua said in a recent press statement that it’s essential to give voters a chance to pass the bill. “For the past four years I have advocated for our council to implement this kind of initiative,” said Bazaldua. “Our jails are overfilled with predominantly Brown and Black males serving sentences for a substance that is making others millions of dollars in more than 30 states across the country. It’s past time we take action against this injustice.”

Bazaldua initially proposed decriminalization in 2021, which led Dallas law enforcement to stop arresting people if they were in possession of less than two ounces of cannabis, however, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) has continued to make arrests, according to Resendez. “Despite the positive steps taken by the city and DPD in recent years, marijuana-related arrests continue, and racial disparities persist,” Resendez said. “Although marijuana use is comparable across racial lines, Black and Latino individuals are disproportionately arrested and punished. Decriminalization is the best way to address this disparity.”

Gracey also added that decriminalizing is mainly about righting the wrongs of the War on Drugs. “Decriminalizing marijuana is not just about changing laws; it’s about rectifying decades of injustice and ensuring that our legal system is fair and equitable for all,” Gracey said.

Oliver was replaced as Ground Game Texas executive director by Catina Voellinger in April, although no reason was presented by the organization. “We’ve built a very strong and mighty team that’s greater than the sum of its parts, right?” said Voellinger after she took the position. “So the main message is that Ground Game is a force, and we’re not going anywhere. None of our programs have ceased. We’re not going to back out on any of the things we’ve committed to. And we’re excited about the future and growing this movement.” 

Recently there have been two ongoing lawsuits against the city of Killeen, which remain unaffected by the recent change in executive director position at Ground Game Texas. “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Julie and I’ll continue to work with her,” said Bell County Commissioner Louie Minor. “I don’t know what her plans are, but I know that she’s dedicated to bringing change to Bell County and all over the state. The impact of Julie and Ground Game has been statewide; but here in Bell County, they were instrumental in getting a more progressive voice in elected positions and giving residents a chance to vote on issues that they care about.”

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A statewide poll in Texas revealed that six out of 10 adults support legalizing cannabis in the state—the first time the poll has shown a solid majority. The issue of cannabis is gaining increasing bipartisan support, gaining support from states that typically vote blue or red.

According to results from the 18th annual Texas Lyceum Poll, 60% of adult Texans say they support adult-use cannabis—representing a 14% jump from the last time the survey asked about marijuana in 2015.

“Overall, 60% of Texas adults say that they support legalizing the use of marijuana in Texas, a 14 point increase since the question was last asked in 2015, when a majority of voters (50%) expressed opposition. Asked about expanding legal casino gambling in Texas, 57% of Texans said they would be supportive of expanded casino gambling, while 28% said they would be opposed.”

The Dallas Morning News reports that only older adults, Republicans, and self-identified conservatives were divided on support for adult-use cannabis. Among Texans over the age of 65 and Republicans, 49% said they support legalization, and among those who identified as conservative, 46% were in support, and 31% of those polled said they oppose cannabis legislation.

The questions weren’t always clear as to why people oppose legalizing cannabis. For instance, some simply want to decriminalize it instead: Among those who oppose legalization, 42% said that they would support decriminalizing possession of small amounts to a citation and fine. The poll also asked about numerous other topics such as politics, religion, housing, and space exploration. Gambling is also gaining support in Texas, according to the Texas Lyceum Poll.

In November of this year, the Texas Lyceum will hold a conference on South Padre Island entitled, “Win, Lose or Draw: The Future of Marijuana and Gambling in the Lone Star State.”

The state’s unique politics come into play when it comes to cannabis. Texans have voted Republican in every general election since 1976.  Some analysts believe that having a Bush on the ticket in every election from 1980 through 2004 (except 1996) helped cement Texas as a “reliably red state.” In 2020 however, that lead waned, and Donald Trump won the state by 6.5% over Joe Biden, the narrowest margin since 1996. But the demographics in Texas are changing quickly.

Patients who are eligible can access low-level THC cannabis under the state’s compassionate use program, established in 2015. But it only allows certain physicians to prescribe low-THC products to patients with seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions. The Texas Legislature expanded the program’s eligibility to include patients with all forms of PTSD and cancer in 2021.

Texas Cities Decriminalize

Decriminalization attempts at the city level have faced opposition from state leaders.

Last February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed lawsuits against five cities that have passed cannabis decriminalization measures. The lawsuit was filed against the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin, and Denton “for adopting amnesty and non-prosecution policies that violate Texas laws concerning marijuana possession and distribution,” according to the attorney general’s office.

In 2022, the five cities enacted ordinances or civic policies that bar police officers from enforcing state laws prohibiting the possession or distribution of cannabis. 

After filing the lawsuits, Paxton said that such policies are prohibited by the Texas Local Government Code, which bars municipal and county governments from adopting “a policy under which the entity will not fully enforce laws relating to drugs.”

“I will not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law and promote the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities,” Paxton said in a statement on Wednesday. “This unconstitutional action by municipalities demonstrates why Texas must have a law to ‘follow the law.’ It’s quite simple: the legislature passes every law after a full debate on the issues, and we don’t allow cities the ability to create anarchy by picking and choosing the laws they enforce.”

In 2022, Denton voters approved an ordinance to decriminalize cannabis, with 71% of voters in favor, but some officers and the mayor of Denton ignored the law anyways. High Times also reported on Texas cops who essentially ignored hemp laws in Texas and the 2018 Farm Bill and raided hemp sellers anyways.

Currently, possession of up to two ounces of cannabis in most areas of Texas is a Class B misdemeanor and punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Possession of over two ounces can result in up to a year in jail, and more than four ounces is a felony crime, with a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.

Any amount of cannabis concentrate is considered a felony in Texas punishable with a minimum $10,000 fine and 180 days in jails. In addition, paraphernalia is also illegal and can result in a $500 fine.

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Looking back to early 2023, Thailand’s climate surrounding cannabis looked incredibly different than conversations surrounding the plant today. The country made major waves after becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to allow medical cannabis use in 2018, and it received global attention after decriminalizing recreational cannabis in 2022.

Though, the events that followed — including an influx of tourists openly using cannabis in public, the opening of plentiful cannabis cafes and reportedly thousands of pot shops over a handful of months with minimal quality control — quickly had leaders backtracking the historic move. 

Now, nearly two months after Thailand lawmakers made the historic move, the country’s current Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced that the country will move to re-list cannabis as a narcotic by the end of the year, Associated Press reports.

Thailand Presses on to Reverse Cannabis Reform Progress

The change in attitude surrounding cannabis is nothing new, as lawmakers recently approved legislation aimed to walk back cannabis reform and ban the use of recreational cannabis. The proposal clarifies that only the use of medical cannabis is allowed, while recreational cannabis is prohibited.

“Without the law to regulate cannabis it will be misused,” Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew said in March, referring to recreational use. At the time, he added that approximately 20,000 cannabis shops had legally registered with the government. The new law would force any unregistered shops, which became far more abundant following Thailand’s decriminalization move, to close. 

Rather, the new comments provide more insight on Srettha’s time table and future plans for recreational cannabis in Thailand.

Earlier this week, the prime minister clarified on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, “I want the health ministry to amend the rules and re-list cannabis as a narcotic,” adding that the ministry should “quickly issue” a rule to limit cannabis usage to medical only.

Thailand Prime Minister’s Broader Crackdown on Drug Use

The comments followed a meeting with the prime minister and agencies associated with narcotics suppression, prompting Srettha to take a hard stance on illicit drugs and order authorities to deliver results and “clear progress” in the next 90 days.

“Drugs is a problem that destroys the future of the country, many young people are addicted. We have to work fast, to confiscate assets (of drug dealers) and expand treatment,” he said.

Initially, the decriminalization move was only meant for medicinal use, though it led to an unregulated market that steadily prompted public backlash and concern over cannabis misuse and potential crime.

Additionally, Srettha asked authorities to be more specific about what constitutes drug possession under the law, from “small amount” to “one pill” in an effort to enforce tougher drug penalties.

While Srettha requested that cannabis be re-listed as a narcotic by the end of the year, it’s still not clear when this will happen and what the process will look like.

Questions Surrounding Cannabis Re-Criminalization

Throughout this U-turn of sorts, numerous advocates and entrepreneurs have opposed the rollback and said that it will ultimately damage Thailand’s economy. According to Reuters, Thailand’s cannabis industry is projected to be worth up to $1.2 billion by 2025 given the thousands of new shops and uptick in tourism throughout the country since 2022.

While it is largely accepted that the country potentially embraced too much too quickly when it comes to cannabis, other Thailand authorities aren’t as optimistic about the policy reversal. 

Prasitchai Nunual, secretary-general of Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network, argued that moving to recriminalize would hurt the economy, small businesses, and consumers. 

“Many people have been growing cannabis and opening cannabis shops. These will have to close down,” he told Reuters. “If scientific results show that cannabis is worse than alcohol and cigarettes then they can re-list it as a narcotic. If cannabis is less harmful, they should list cigarettes and alcohol as narcotics too.”

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New Jersey Senator Cory Booker paid a visit to Natura, Sacramento on Monday to take a look at some grow rooms and talk about cannabis.

Senator Booker didn’t have long to talk but he greeted a room full of weed people with a smile and accolations for those who have taken legal and personal risks to pioneer the industry and set the standard for the rest of the states still in the early days of their legal markets.

“We’re in a weird place in our country where we’ve had this prohibition that has lasted for generations that has really punished folks,” Senator Booker said Monday. “I’m from Newark where marijuana enforcement is disproportionately focused on low income people, people of color, people who are suffering, people who are struggling. And we have this perverse reality in America where we have people with criminal convictions who are doing things that presidents and congress people and senators have admitted to doing. The hypocrisy of that is maddening.”

A long time advocate of legal cannabis, Senator Booker recently introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. If passed, this bit of legislation would essentially end federal cannabis prohibition by removing cannabis from the list of controlled substances entirely.

“Thousands of people have suffered at the hands of our broken cannabis laws, and the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would finally dismantle the outdated federal marijuana prohibition, expunge past convictions for people with low-level cannabis offenses, and ensure restorative justice for communities impacted by the War on Drugs,” Senator Booker said in a press release. “These common-sense policies will ensure a more equitable criminal justice system and promote public safety.”

The announcement of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act came almost directly after an announcement by the DEA to reschedule cannabis from Schedule 1 alongside drugs like heroin and LSD to Schedule 3, alongside drugs like Xanax, Codeine and Ketamine. While rescheduling certainly represents a step forward with regard to the federal laws regarding cannabis, it would not necessarily do anything for people serving prison time for federal cannabis infractions. It’s also unclear how rescheduling would affect existing state cannabis markets, though speculation has run rampant to that end since rescheduling was announced.

The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act contains provisions to create uniform federal regulations for cannabis through the establishment of a federal regulatory commission for cannabis as well as directions for the FDA to establish standards for labeling of cannabis products. The act would also secure additional funding for substance abuse recovery programs, establish grant programs to help individual states combat black market cannabis operations, and direct the Department of Transportation to collect data on cannabis-impaired driving. There are provisions in the act to, among other things, do away with tax burdens on legal cannabis businesses, remove cannabis from federal drug testing, provide automatic expungement for non-violent cannabis crimes, and require various federal agencies to spend money studying cannabis. The bill is co-sponsored by 15 additional Democratic senators and the full text can be found here. 

“It’s past time for the federal government to catch up to the attitudes of the American people when it comes to cannabis,” Leader Schumer said in a press release. “We have more work to do to address decades of over-criminalization, particularly in communities of color, but today’s reintroduction shows the movement is growing, and I will keep working until we achieve meaningful change.”

This is not the first time Senator Booker has attempted to push legislation to decriminalize cannabis production. He said Monday that when he made his first attempt to do so as a congressman, he was laughed at by his fellow senators.

“I’ve been in the trenches on this. When I first got to the senate 11 years ago, I put forth a major piece of legislation called the Marijuana Justice Act, and I’m not joking I literally got laughed at by senators saying that we shouldn’t do that or it’s a career ender to come out like that,” Senator Booker said. “But now the world has changed in over a decade. The red states and blue states all around America, some partisan issue, have come forward and say, no. This is ridiculous. I’ve had law enforcement officers say ‘Gosh, if there was a drug I’d want to ban it would be alcohol not marijuana.’”

Senator Booker’s visit to Natura was brief but served as yet another indicator that the times are a-changing in Washington and cannabis is moving away from its long-time status as the poster child of the drug war and moving toward a much more realistic and less harmful spot in the eyes of our national legislators. Senator Booker expressed his admiration for the people who have been willing to work in the cannabis industry while it goes through its post-prohibition growing pains.

“I came here to, not learn, but connect with these people that are part of a larger movement in America for justice and I’ve just seen that each and every one of you are willing to work in an industry that’s not easy, but also wants to be in a country where freedom’s never been easy,” Senator Booker said. “Justice has never been easy but we need people like us to stand up for it. It’s what makes it possible.”

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A federally recognized tribe concentrated largely in the Great Lakes region announced last week that it will decriminalize cannabis.

“The Ho-Chunk Nation recognizes that marijuana and its derivatives are natural growth plants with medicinal and industrial applications,” the tribe said in a statement, as quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Indigenous people have used marijuana and hemp for hundreds of years for a variety of purposes and the Ho-Chunk Nation acknowledges its functional purpose.”

Rob Pero, founder of the nonprofit Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, called it “a historic day for Ho-Chunk.”

“We commend their commitment to increasing accessibility to plant medicine. … They are building an environment now, before prohibition ends, that will position them to lead the industry, create sustainable economic opportunity and improve the health and wellbeing of our people,” Pero said, as quoted by the Journal Sentinel.

“Tribes are able today to self-determine their interests in cannabis and the complex landscape requires the navigation of local, tribal, state and federal policy,” Pero adde. “We see the reclassification empowering tribes to engage meaningfully throughout the supply chain, from farming to processing to retail and more, as well as to facilitate interstate nation-to-nation commerce.”

The Ho-Chunk Nation reportedly made the announcement on April 30. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, it means that cannabis will be decriminalized on tribal lands “and Ho-Chunk police will not issue citations for possession.”

What it does not mean, however, is that marijuana is legal there. Wisconsin Public Radio noted that “tribal law experts advise the drug is still illegal,” and that an “FAQ distributed within the Ho-Chunk nation indicates county or state police could still issue citations.”

“Wisconsin is one of six states that has criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans on reservation land under a law known as Public Law 280. The law applies to all federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin except for the Menominee, which is under the jurisdiction of the federal government,” the public radio station said, adding that it “could make it difficult to set up businesses that cultivate or sell cannabis for medicinal or recreational purposes” and that it “could even deter customers who now travel to neighboring states where cannabis is currently legal.”

According to its official website, the Ho-Chunk Nation legislature “is comprised of four branches of government; executive, legislative, judicial and the general council,” which are “made up of 13 representatives called Legislators from four districts, who can serve up to two terms of four (4) years.” Three of the four districts are in Wisconsin, with the fourth covering all districts outside Wisconsin.

Both medical and recreational cannabis are illegal in Wisconsin –– one of the few remaining states with total prohibition on pot. 

A Republican-led effort to pass a medical marijuana bill in this year’s legislative session failed in February. 

The proposal “drew opposition for being too conservative in severely limiting who could have access to medical marijuana and how it would be distributed, while others faulted it for not going far enough,” according to the Associated Press, which added that Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate “objected to having state-run dispensaries, while Democrats pushed for full legalization.”

Democrats in the Badger State, including Gov. Tony Evers, has been an outspoken supporter of marijuana reform, pushing Wisconsin lawmakers to legalize both recreational and medical cannabis.

Evers said in January that he backed the GOP medical marijuana measure, even though it wasn’t as comprehensive as he would prefer. 

“I would think that getting it all done in one fell swoop would be more thoughtful as far as meeting the needs of Wisconsinites that have asked for it,” Evers said at the time. “But if that’s what we can accomplish right now, I’ll be supportive of that.”

Wisconsin could be losing out on precious tax revenue due to its ongoing prohibition. An economic analysis released last year found that neighboring Illinois, where marijuana is legal, has received millions of dollars from cannabis shoppers crossing the border from Wisconsin.

Ho-Chunk Nation leaders said that they anticipate the tribe “entering the cannabis business once it becomes legal in the state,” according to the Journal Sentinel.

The newspaper said that “tribal law experts say there’s still a legal question about whether tribal nations can allow cannabis sales on federal trust reservation land — land that isn’t subject to local jurisdiction or taxes but still must abide by federal law.”

“The only way to do that would be on tribal trust land/Indian country land, and since federal law still bans cannabis, no, there’s no way,” Matthew Fletcher, a law professor at the University of Michigan told the newspaper. “That doesn’t mean tribes won’t do it, but they are at the complete mercy of the whims of the federal government’s decision to prosecute or not. It’s no way to do business. Same is true even if the state makes it legal.”

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The federal war on marijuana has entered the end game.

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As a “laboratory of democracy,” Oregon’s experiment with decriminalizing all drugs—including hard drugs like heroin and meth—has run its course and come to an end. The Oregon law was reversed on April 1 under new legislation signed to impose misdemeanor charges for crimes involving hard drugs.

On Monday, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed House Bill 4002, which reverses the first-of-its-kind, voter-approved drug decriminalization law that was enacted three years ago.  HB 4002 was approved by the state Senate 21-8 after the House approved it 51-7.

In 2020, nearly 60% of Oregon voters passed the state’s drug decriminalization law, Measure 110, which in a radical move, decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs and was designed to direct drug addicts to rehab instead of doing time. The bill made the personal use possession of illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and meth punishable by a mere ticket and a maximum fine of $100. 

But critics claim the law created a hellscape of drug addicts on the streets of cities like Portland. The New York Times called it a “deluge of overdose deaths.” How true are these claims? Oregon ranked 17th for the highest drug-related deaths last year, with 30 fentanyl overdose fatalities for every 100,000 people—up from 36th out of the 39 states (including Washington, D.C.) that reported fentanyl overdose deaths in 2019. This was too high of a climb amid the state’s experimental drug law, some analysts said, however it was still lower than the rates seen in other states. 

Fast forward to August 2023, and 56% of Oregonians said they disapproved of the drug decriminalization law, and lawmakers—Republicans and Democrats included—introduced legislation to reverse the bill. Liberal commentators, however, said the state is reigniting a police state.

Statesman Journal reports that beginning on Sept. 1, Class E violations, which were created under Measure 110, eliminating criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of illegal drugs, will be repealed under the new law. The new law means that people caught with small amounts of illegal drugs will face a new “drug enforcement misdemeanor.”

HB 4002, raised the punishment for personal use possession to a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. It gives cops the green light to confiscate the drugs and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks. 

It also establishes ways for rehab treatment to be offered as an alternative to jail time by encouraging law enforcement agencies to create “deflection programs” that would divert people to addiction and mental health services instead of the criminal justice system.

In a letter to Senate President Rob Wagner and House Speaker Julie Fahey, Gov. Kotek wrote that the bill still encourages law enforcement to prioritize “pre-arrest deflection.”

“Implementation of House Bill 4002 will be complex, but committing to clarity and coordination is one way to improve its likelihood of long-term success,” the governor stated. “Therefore, I direct the Criminal Justice Commission to leverage their full authority for deflection programs to use a standardized certification document that is easily identifiable as evidence of a person’s successful completion.”

“Committing to this approach is one strategy to reduce collateral consequences of justice system involvement and can help mitigate the racial and ethnic disparities this legislation is projected to create,” Kotek stated in her letter. “For example, pre-arrest deflection for all standalone PCS charges can support a simplified sealing process later by reducing the number of records created and, based on historical data, could potentially reduce the disparate impact of criminalization of communities of color.”

Republican leadership responded to the governor signing HB 4002.

“Republicans stood united and forced Democrats to do what Oregonians demanded: recriminalize drugs,” said House Leader Jeff Helfrich. “Make no mistake, this bill is not enough to undo the disaster of Measure 110. House Republicans are ready to continue the work we started and bring real change to Salem in the next session.”

Rep. Tim Knopp, a Republican, said that the bill ends a crisis that the state was grappling with. 

“Make no mistake, this bill is not enough to undo the disaster of Measure 110,” Knopp said in a statement. “House Republicans are ready to continue the work we started and bring real change to Salem in the next session.”

“Now that the Governor has given the recriminalization bill her stamp of approval, we can finally end the chapter on Oregon’s experiment with decriminalizing hard drugs.”

“HB 4002 is not a perfect solution; legislators will have much more work to do in upcoming sessions. But it sets a standard for how the state should approach the drug addiction crisis: by empowering law enforcement and our behavioral health systems to work together to help Oregonians struggling with chronic addiction seek life-saving treatment.” 

The changes under the new law take effect Sept. 1.

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