Andrew Yang wants to legalize magic mushrooms
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Andrew Yang, candidate for mayor. Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr
By David Brand
Talk about a fun guy.
Andrew Yang, a top candidate in the 2021 race for New York City mayor, says New York state should legalize psychedelic mushrooms as well as weed.
"I'm for the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms and I am open to the public policy impact of legalizing other drugs,” Yang said at a March 17 forum hosted by the organization VOCAL-NY.
The comment follows past statements Yang made about legalizing psilocybin — the chemical that makes the mushrooms magical — for medicinal and therapeutic use when he was campaigning for president.
Recent medical research backs up the growing movement to legalize the hallucinogenic fungus known as ‘shrooms.
A 2020 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that doses of psilocybin produced “rapid and large reductions” in depression when combined with supportive psychotherapy. A 2016 John Hopkins study found that psilocybin relieved anxiety and depression for people with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.
Like every top candidate in the Democratic field, Yang said he supports legalizing marijuana — a measure state lawmakers are poised to enact. He also called for the decriminalization of other drugs, including opioids.
He said he would encourage New York City prosecutors to stop charging people arrested with small amounts of drugs, regardless of the substance.
“I would be instructing our district attorneys not to be prosecuting for, frankly, like, personal possession,” Yang said. “We should be getting people who are trying to frankly profit and getting other people hooked. We should not be prosecuting people for possession.”
The mayor does not have the power to “instruct” DAs what offenses to prosecute, but can use their platform and budgetary powers to compel change. Some DAs have declined to prosecute most low-level marijuana offenses.
Oregon became the first state in the United States to legalize mushrooms for therapeutic use in a ballot referendum last year. Yang is one of a growing number of lawmakers and candidates who support legalizing, or at least decriminalizing, mushrooms in New York, too.
Badrun Khan, a candidate in the crowded field for a Long Island City council seat, said Wednesday that she supports the legalization of “magic mushrooms” for medicinal use.
“Look at the pharmaceutical industry that made billions on addictive substances, psilocybin is not addictive,” said Khan, a community member board member who ran for Congress last year. “It’s only right to let people suffering with chronic mental illnesses such as PTSD or severe depression try psilocybin to ease their pain.”
Manhattan Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal introduced legislation last year to legalize psilocybin, the psychedelic chemical in mushrooms.
Mushrooms may become the next frontier in the effort to roll back hardline drug laws.
New York lawmakers on Wednesday neared a deal to lift the prohibition on cannabis after years of advocacy, particularly among communities of color devastated by the war on drugs. The decades-long crackdown on drug offenses — including low-level use and possession — filled jails and prisons with Black and Latino men and has left millions of people with permanent conviction records.
“The war on drugs has been a war on people,” Yang said at the VOCAL-NY forum.
