Michigan initiative to legalize psychedelics won’t be on November ballot

Looks like Michiganders won’t be voting on legalizing psychedelics this year after all.

Activist groups Decriminalize Nature Michigan and Students for Sensible Drug Policy announced they are withdrawing their efforts to get an initiative legalizing psychedelics on the Michigan November ballot. They had been gathering signatures for the ballot proposal since March.

The proposed bill, the Michigan Initiative for Community Healing, would have decriminalized the possession of magic mushrooms and other plant-based medicine, reduced penalties, and allowed hospitals and religious organizations to host psychedelic-assisted ceremonial and mental health services.

When the groups got approval to start collecting signatures at the end of March, they only had two months to get the required 340,000 signatures. The deadline was June 1, but now they are shooting for 2024 instead.

“We knew a June 1st deadline to make the 2022 ballot was ambitious with just over two months to collect, and now we know we have the momentum necessary to move forward with a normal 180[-day] collection period,” Myc Williams, campaign manager of the Michigan Initiative for Community Healing, said in a press release. “We’ll see ya at the polls in 2024.”

In an email interview with Marijuana Moment, Williams declined to say exactly how many signatures have been collected so far, but said they would still be valid for the 2024 election.

We all know this is not going to stop people from partaking in psychedelics, but it would be nice to have state-wide decriminalization.

So far, entheogenic plants have only been decriminalized in three Michigan cities: Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Hazel Park.

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