Massachusetts voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have made the Bay State the third in the union to legalize psychedelics as part of a regulated access model for mental health treatments.
With about 87 percent of precincts reporting, 57 percent of residents voted against Question 4, according to the Associated Press.
The ballot measure would have created a statewide program to regulate the licensing of psychedelic substances and services, including the administration of psychedelic substances to adult over 21 under licensed supervision.
Oregon and Colorado both legalized psychedelics through ballot measures, in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
Question 4 also would have authorized adults over 21 to grow, possess, and use five psychedelics — psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline — focusing on natural substances, not synthetic ones: psilocybin and psilocin from mushrooms, DMT and ibogaine from plants, and mescaline from certain cacti (but the measure specifically excludes peyote).
In addition to whatever amounts they might grow in their homes, the measure proposed maximum amounts allowed for personal possession:
• 1 gram of DMT
• 1 gram of psilocybin
• 1 gram of psilocin
• 18 grams of mescaline
• 30 grams of ibogaine
The Coalition for Safe Communities, which claims to include more than 60,000 physicians and psychiatrists nationwide, called the ballot question “poorly written and misguided.”
“Today, voters across Massachusetts came together to reject the passage of Question 4 in recognition of the negative impacts it would have to our neighborhoods, roads, hospitals, children, pets and public safety across the state,” the coalition said in a statement.
The measure would have also established a commission to regulate the regulated-access industry and a 20-member advisory board. Moreover, MassHealth would have been required to cover legal psychedelic treatments as part of behavioral health care, though insurance providers would not be obligated to cover the cost of the psychedelics themselves.
