Rhode Island Select Board Asks State to Reconsider Supervised Use of Psilocybin

PROVINCETOWN — At its Dec. 11 meeting, the select board considered a subject that’s rarely on its agenda: psychedelic drugs.

Board member Erik Borg had submitted for discussion a resolution written by James Davis, executive director of the advocacy group Bay Staters for Natural Medicine. The resolution called for psychedelic plants and fungi to be the “lowest law enforcement priority for Provincetown.”

The resolution also asked state legislators to replace the text of the “Natural Psychedelic Substances Act,” a proposed ballot measure that could soon qualify for this November’s election, with “language that legalizes plant medicine services in a straightforward manner.”

Borg told the board that Davis has helped educate municipalities across the state about psilocybin. Davis made the case that the ballot measure as it stands would impose crippling costs on psilocybin users and facilitators — actually slowing rather than aiding a move toward medicinal use.

The select board discussed Davis’s resolution for nearly an hour, in the end voting to endorse it, though with some changes.

Provincetown resident Patricia van Dijkhuizen said that she has trained as a psychedelic practitioner in the Netherlands, Jamaica, and Costa Rica, but she cannot offer her services, including end-of-life therapies, in Massachusetts. “I support this measure so that people like me can practice legally and, very importantly, to make it affordable to those who need it,” van Dijkhuizen said.

“Out-of-state super PACs want to impose a complex regulatory system that will confound local business opportunities,” said Anna Meade, a Provincetown resident and visitor services board member, during public comments at the outset of the meeting. “Provincetown can play a pivotal role in influencing state policy for simple regulatory oversight,” she added.

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Select Board Asks State to Reconsider Supervised Use of Psilocybin

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