EDITORIAL: Considering Proposition 122, Part Two

Read Part One

I shared a graph yesterday in Part One, and we’re sharing again this morning, below.

Source: HuffPost.com

I found the chart on HuffPost.com, in a 2016 article by Matt Ferner titled “The Full Cost Of Incarceration In The U.S. is Over $1 Trillion, Study Finds”.  From Mr. Ferner’s article:

A new study examining the economic toll of mass incarceration in the United States concludes that the full cost exceeds $1 trillion [per year] ― with about half of that burden falling on the families, children and communities of people who have been locked up.

The United States is the biggest jailer on the planet, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. Another 7 million Americans are either on probation or on parole. Operating all those federal and state prisons, plus running local jails, is generally said to cost the U.S. government about $80 billion a year.

But in a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that the $80 billion price tag is likely a gross underestimation, because it does not factor in the social costs of incarceration.

“We find that for every dollar in corrections costs, incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs,” Carrie Pettus-Davis, director of the university’s Concordance Institute for Advancing Social Justice and a co-author of the study, said last week.

This editorial concerns a ballot measure — Proposition 122 — that Coloradans can vote on in the current election.  (Assuming you didn’t simply throw your ballot in the trash when it arrived, as a friend recently confessed they’d done.)

Readers might wonder why we’re discussing America’s incarceration crisis in a story about psychedelic mushrooms.  Proposition 122, if approved, will allow individuals aged 21 and older to possess and use five specific types of natural psychedelic substances without risking incarceration.  Specifically, the measure covers two chemicals found in psychedelic mushrooms — psilocybin and psilocin — and three other plant-based psychedelic substances — ibogaine, mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT.

The measure states that the removal and reduction of criminal penalties will apply retroactively to someone who has already been convicted of an offense that would be decriminalized under the measure.  Individuals who have completed their sentence may file a petition to the courts to have their criminal record sealed at no cost.

Selling natural psychedelic substances outside of the licensed supervised use facilities will remain illegal.

Colorado’s ‘Blue Book’ election information booklet provides much more information about Proposition 122 (and all the other measures on the November ballot) than I will be sharing here.  You can download the booklet here.  Also available in Spanish.

Here’s a portion of the ‘Arguments Against Proposition 122’ shown in the Blue Book:

Under the guise of health care, Proposition 122 legalizes drugs that have been illegal for over 50 years and forces local communities to allow use of these substances. It also provides broad protections for criminals by allowing convictions to be wiped from their records. By decriminalizing personal use, the black market for these drugs may expand and provide access to youth or expose people to psychedelic substances that are tainted with other drugs. This may create additional burdens on local governments which, under the measure, have limited say on what is allowed in their communities.

This argument mentions the fact that psilocybin mushrooms have been illegal for over 50 years. But the argument ignores the reasons why has psilocybin has been listed as a Schedule I drug for over 50 years.

From an April 2020 Drug Enforcement Administration ‘Drug Fact Sheet’, referring to the psychoactive ingredient of psilocybin mushrooms:

What is its effect on the mind?

The psychological consequences of psilocybin use include hallucinations and an inability to discern fantasy from reality. Panic reactions and a psychotic-like episode also may occur, particularly if a user ingests a high dose.

What are its overdose effects?

Effects of overdose include:  Longer, more intense “trip” episodes, psychosis, and possible death.

These effects are, of course, similar to the dangers posed by over-consumption of alcohol.  The inability to discern fantasy from reality is a common occurrence in any local bar.

Over-consumption of most any ordinary nutrient leads to ‘possible death’… including water, salt, and sugar.  Are mushrooms — psilocybin especially — particularly poisonous?

From DrugPolicy.org:

Psilocybin is considered to have extremely low toxicity, and cases of death have been extremely rare.

Why has the possession and use of a wild mushroom, of extremely low toxicity, been sending people to prison for over 50 years? I would suggest it’s the same reason the possession and use of an easy-to-cultivate plant — marijuana — has been sending people to prison for over 50 years.

The people who created the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970 desired the power to lock up people who shared a certain lifestyle, but who were doing nothing to harm anyone.  Those lifestyles and beliefs were a threat to the powerful interests known in 1970 as ‘The Establishment’.  By leaving alcohol consumption basically unregulated, but criminalizing marijuana, psilocybin, and other plant-based drugs, ‘The Establishment’ was able to enforce — to some degree — a certain worldview and value system on the American people, and was able to lock up or intimidate people who perceived the world through a different lens.

How did that work out, for the rest of us?  Those of us who maybe didn’t get caught, or who maybe preferred alcohol fantasies to other types of experiences?

Those of us whose lives and futures were not destroyed via the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970?

A new study examining the economic toll of mass incarceration in the United States concludes that the full cost exceeds $1 trillion [per year] ― with about half of that burden falling on the families, children and communities of people who have been locked up…

Can this claim possibly be accurate… that the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is partly — perhaps largely — responsible for costing Americans more than $1 trillion a year, including enforcement, incarceration, and social impacts on families and communities?

A question for us to consider. What is the cost to America — or to a local community in America — when someone ingests a psilocybin mushroom, and experiences an altered view of reality for four or five hours?
Read Part Three…

Bill Hudson

Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can't seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.