This is because of its therapeutic potential, rather than promoting its consumption for a Saturday night 'trip'.
The state of Oregon, long known for its progressive, liberal views, has just voted to legalise psychedelic psilocybin therapy, so it's adult residents can now legally access hallucinogenic mushrooms. It passed with a large majority and the timing was pertinent, coinciding as it did with the release of a report which added more weight to evidence that psilocybin offers an effective treatment for depression.
This new law is good news because the therapeutic potential of psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) can provide something to people that anti-depressants cannot: an emotional release. This is at the opposite end of the spectrum from antidepressants that “blunt” the emotions of patients.
Oregon’s Measure 109, as it's called, directs the state to establish and regulate a programme whereby adults in the state will be able to consume psilocybin. That’s what sets Measure 109 apart from other decriminalization efforts: Rather than blocking penalties for possessing psychedelic products, it would establish a state-regulated programme for using and obtaining them.
On the other side of America, in Washington DC, voters also approved a measure that will effectively decriminalize “magic mushrooms” and other organic psychedelic drugs. However, unlike Oregon, the measure does not legalize magic mushrooms but rather re-categorizes them as “the lowest level police enforcement priority.”
In the meantime, yet more states have recently voted to legalise recreational marijuana. Remarkably, that now means 1 in 3 Americans now live in a state where spliffing up is legal.