Last verified: March 2026
What Oakland Did
On June 4, 2019, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to pass Resolution 87731-C.M.S., making the investigation and arrest of individuals for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing entheogenic plants and fungi among the lowest law enforcement priorities in the city. The resolution was introduced by Councilmember Noel Gallo and driven by the grassroots campaign Decriminalize Nature Oakland.
The resolution covers a broad category of naturally occurring psychedelics: psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca (containing DMT), ibogaine, mescaline-containing cacti (including peyote and San Pedro), and other plant- and fungi-based entheogens. It does not cover synthetic psychedelics such as LSD or MDMA.
A critical distinction: this is decriminalization, not legalization. Entheogenic substances remain illegal under both California state law and federal law. What Oakland did was tell its own police department to treat these substances as the lowest priority for investigation and arrest. No commercial sales framework exists. No dispensaries sell psilocybin. The resolution is a policy directive to local law enforcement, not a licensing regime.
The resolution's text is unusually direct about its reasoning, stating that entheogenic plants and fungi "can benefit psychological and physical wellness, support and enhance religious and spiritual practices, and can reestablish human's inalienable and direct relationship to nature."
The Timeline
Denver Moves First
Denver, Colorado narrowly passed Initiative 301, becoming the first US city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms. The measure passed by less than 2 percentage points. Denver's vote proved the concept was viable — but only for psilocybin, not the broader entheogenic category Oakland would adopt.
Oakland Passes Resolution 87731-C.M.S.
The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi. Unlike Denver, Oakland's resolution covered the full spectrum: psilocybin, ayahuasca, ibogaine, peyote, and other naturally occurring psychedelics. Councilmember Noel Gallo introduced the measure. Decriminalize Nature Oakland, led by organizers including Carlos Plazola, drove the campaign.
Santa Cruz Follows
Santa Cruz became the third US city to decriminalize entheogenic plants, following Oakland's broader model rather than Denver's psilocybin-only approach. The Bay Area's influence on drug policy reform was spreading down the California coast.
Oregon Passes Measure 109
Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy through Measure 109, creating a regulated framework for licensed facilitators to administer psilocybin in supervised settings. Oregon also passed Measure 110, decriminalizing personal possession of all drugs. The Oregon model went far beyond Oakland's resolution — it created an actual regulatory structure for therapeutic use.
Colorado Passes Proposition 122
Colorado passed Proposition 122, decriminalizing psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline statewide and creating a framework for regulated psilocybin therapy centers. Colorado became the second state (after Oregon) to move beyond city-level action to statewide policy.
The National Ripple
Following Oakland and Denver, cities across the country adopted similar measures: Washington, D.C., Ann Arbor, Detroit, Seattle, Somerville, and others. Multiple state legislatures have introduced decriminalization or therapeutic-access bills. The Decriminalize Nature movement Oakland helped launch now has chapters in over 100 cities.
The Oakland Pattern
Oakland's psilocybin resolution did not emerge from nowhere. It fits a pattern that stretches back decades. This is the same city that created the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative in 1995, built Oaksterdam in the 2000s, passed Measure Z in 2004 making cannabis enforcement the lowest police priority, and launched America's first cannabis equity program in 2017. The progressive infrastructure — the activist networks, the sympathetic council members, the community organizations accustomed to drug policy reform — was already in place.
The Decriminalize Nature Oakland campaign drew directly on cannabis reform playbooks. Many of the same organizers who had worked on cannabis legalization and equity efforts turned their attention to entheogens. The argument was structurally identical: these substances have therapeutic value, their criminalization causes disproportionate harm, and law enforcement resources are better spent elsewhere.
What It Does Not Do
The resolution does not:
- Legalize psilocybin or other entheogens
- Create any commercial sales or licensing framework
- Protect anyone from state or federal prosecution
- Apply outside Oakland city limits
- Cover synthetic psychedelics (LSD, MDMA, ketamine)
- Prevent employers from enforcing workplace drug policies
If you possess psilocybin mushrooms in Oakland, the Oakland Police Department has been directed to treat it as their lowest priority. But the Alameda County Sheriff, California Highway Patrol, DEA, and FBI are not bound by Oakland's resolution. Federal law classifies psilocybin as a Schedule I controlled substance.
The Broader Context
Oakland's entheogenic plant resolution, like its cannabis reforms before it, reflects a city that has consistently been willing to act before the evidence is fully settled and before public opinion has caught up. Sometimes Oakland gets it right early. Sometimes the implementation is messy. But the pattern is clear: from the OCBC in 1995 to Harborside in 2006 to equity licensing in 2017 to entheogens in 2019, Oakland keeps moving first.
Whether psilocybin decriminalization follows the same arc as cannabis — from city-level deprioritization to state legalization to a regulated industry — remains to be seen. Oregon and Colorado suggest it might. But Oakland's resolution was never about building an industry. It was about telling police not to arrest people for using plants and fungi that humans have used for thousands of years.
Learn More
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