California…SB519.. Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 9-5 to endorse the motion do pass as amended

Psychedelic Alpha report that SB519 is ever so slowly moving through the labryinth of oversight committees and as Spacemen 3 sang.. It Is The Sound Of Confusion

 

SB-519, which would generally decriminalise psychedelics in the state of California, appears to have passed another hurdle yesterday. California Senate Bills must run through a gauntlet of senate and assembly committees before reaching the floor.

Thus far, SB-519 has the following scorecard in terms of committee votes:

  • Senate Public Safety: Passed with a 4-1 vote (6th April, 2021)
  • Senate Health: Passed with a 6-2 vote (14th April, 2021)
  • Senate Appropriations: Passed with a 5-2 vote (20th May, 2021)
  • Senate Floor: sent to the Assembly in a 21-16 vote (1st June, 2021)
  • Assembly Public Safety: Passed with a 8-4 vote (29th June, 2021)
  • Assembly Health: Passed with a 8-4 vote (13th July, 2021)

As you can see, the Bill passed through the requisite Senate committees and two Assembly committees last year before being put on pause just under a year ago in order to build a coalition to earn the support of Assembleymembers.

Yesterday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 9-5 to endorse the motion do pass as amended. Frustratingly, however, the full text of the amendments—which are thought to be significant—is not available at the time of writing. Even Senator Scott Wiener, who is forwarding the Bill, is awaiting final clarity on such amendments.

The confusion is enormous, as Kyle Jaeger reports in Marijuana Moment:

“It’s not immediately clear if the amendment deletes the bill’s criminal justice reform provisions that would have removed penalties for possessing certain substances and only maintains a section directing state officials to establish a working group to study and make recommendations regarding future psychedelics reform—or if the opposite occurred, meaning that the main thrust of the bill survives and the study itself was taken out.”

LA Times reporter Hannah Wiley implied, on Twitter, that this lack of transparency around amendments is par for the course for this committee.

If the amendments are reflected in the Bill, SB-519 should progress to the Assembly Floor for a full vote.

Source Psychedelic Alpha

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