3 ms·

Is there any data on how many people in California are being arrested over magic mushroom or LSD possession? What impact does this bill have in that sense?

cagmz 3y ago
"Potential future savings (General Fund) to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), of an unknown but potentially significant amount, in reduced incarceration costs. Under existing law, personal possession of mescaline, DMT, psilocybin, or psilocin is punishable by incarceration in county jail or, if the defendant has certain prior convictions, by incarceration in prison. Under this bill, possession of small amounts of these substances will no longer be a criminal offense. If there are fewer prison sentences issued for drug possession as a result of this bill, CDCR's incarceration costs will decline." Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB58 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient....
asadotzler 3y ago
I can't find this data for CA but here's my guesstimate: The web tells me there are approximately 750,000 drug possession-only arrests in the US each year. The web also tells me that psychedelic arrests make up an estimated 2-3% of that. Of those arrested, about 33% seem to do at least some time as a result, but usually months not years. Those are national figures, based mostly on FBI claims, so hard to say about CA but if CA is at all typical, here's how that would look. Maybe 600-1,000 psychedelic possession defendants doing time each year. Let's assume about $8K for each of those doing time (assuming short, like 2 months) and $2K for the rest that end up in court but not in jail and you get over a million dollars a year prosecuting people who do no harm and whose use of the substance otherwise has no cost on taxpayers (except maybe the occasional uninusured ER visit). Perhaps not a huge savings, but also, IMO, a hugely wasteful spend that should come to an end that will have the more important benefit of not overturning the lives of thousands of people for no good goddamn reason other than purely puritanical bullshit we should have abandoned a long time ago.

cagmz 3y ago

"Potential future savings (General Fund) to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), of an unknown but potentially significant amount, in reduced incarceration costs. Under existing law, personal possession of mescaline, DMT, psilocybin, or psilocin is punishable by incarceration in county jail or, if the defendant has certain prior convictions, by incarceration in prison. Under this bill, possession of small amounts of these substances will no longer be a criminal offense. If there are fewer prison sentences issued for drug possession as a result of this bill, CDCR's incarceration costs will decline." Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB58 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient....

asadotzler 3y ago

I can't find this data for CA but here's my guesstimate: The web tells me there are approximately 750,000 drug possession-only arrests in the US each year. The web also tells me that psychedelic arrests make up an estimated 2-3% of that. Of those arrested, about 33% seem to do at least some time as a result, but usually months not years. Those are national figures, based mostly on FBI claims, so hard to say about CA but if CA is at all typical, here's how that would look. Maybe 600-1,000 psychedelic possession defendants doing time each year. Let's assume about $8K for each of those doing time (assuming short, like 2 months) and $2K for the rest that end up in court but not in jail and you get over a million dollars a year prosecuting people who do no harm and whose use of the substance otherwise has no cost on taxpayers (except maybe the occasional uninusured ER visit). Perhaps not a huge savings, but also, IMO, a hugely wasteful spend that should come to an end that will have the more important benefit of not overturning the lives of thousands of people for no good goddamn reason other than purely puritanical bullshit we should have abandoned a long time ago.