PORTLAND, Maine — At its Monday meeting, Portland’s city council voted 6-3 to pass a resolution deprioritizing prosecution for possession of psychedelic plants, like mushrooms.
The move does not decriminalize psychedelics, but sets official city policy to put those crimes at the lowest priority for prosecution.
Decriminalize Maine interim director Aaron Parker said in a Wednesday interview with NEWS CENTER Maine the state Legislature needs to pass decriminalization, but said it’s a step in the right direction.
"If we already have at least some element of the city government saying, 'OK, we don’t want to waste our time and resources criminalizing people for these things,' it makes it that much easier to, next time, be like, 'Alright,' and we’re gonna re-write the ordinances,'" Parker said.
Psychedelics have been used to treat conditions like PTSD and treatment-resistant depression, and proponents argued to the council that treatment outcomes are better when given without fear of prosecution.
When reached for comment Wednesday, Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset Counties and president of the Maine Prosecutors Association, wanted to warn Mainers not to get a false sense of security if they chose to use psychedelics in Portland moving forward.
"If someone interprets that [resolution] to mean... this criminal statute will no longer be enforced, that would be a wrong interpretation," Maloney said.
At Monday's meeting, new Portland Police Chief Mark Dubois said, that while his officers may find mushrooms during a drug bust looking for other substances, it's a non-issue for his department.
"[That's] strictly because I asked pretty much everybody I could in the police department and nobody can recall arresting anybody for any of the things we're talking about, ever," DuBois told the council.
LD 1914 was tabled in the state Legislature. If passed, the bill would create a framework to allow people 21 and older to access psilocybin products in Maine.