Decriminalize Nature

What is the movement?

Decriminalize Nature brings people together to reconsider how communities respond to certain naturally occurring psychoactive plants and fungi. Its work combines public learning, local organizing, and proposals to reduce criminal penalties or enforcement around adult personal practices.

The term entheogenic is often used for plants and fungi associated with spiritual, ceremonial, or deeply reflective experiences. The movement’s discussions include psilocybin-containing mushrooms, some mescaline-containing cacti, iboga, and plants used in ayahuasca traditions. These examples describe its policy focus, rather than recommendations for personal use.

A mission shaped by access and connection

The movement seeks a relationship with these plants and fungi that gives greater weight to personal choice, community well-being, and connection with the natural world. Supporters argue that criminalization can create barriers to honest discussion and can separate people from cultural or spiritual practices.

Equity is central to that vision: opportunities should not depend entirely on wealth or access to expensive services. Advocates emphasize locally shaped approaches, voluntary participation, and respect for people whose communities have maintained these traditions.

What does decriminalization mean?

The meaning depends on the actual policy. A proposal may seek changes to criminal penalties, or ask a city to give certain enforcement activities a lower priority. A statement of support alone does not necessarily make either change.

Advocacy

An effort to change policy through education, conversation, and civic participation.

Enforcement deprioritization

A local decision about how public enforcement resources are used. It does not itself repeal state or federal restrictions.

Legalization and regulation

A separate framework that may authorize specified activities and establish licensing, oversight, or other requirements.

These approaches can have very different limits. A local resolution should not be read as blanket permission to possess, supply, sell, or administer a substance.

The work extends beyond policy

Local organizing pairs policy work with public learning and relationships that help people stay involved. Community discussions can make room for questions about ethics, peer support, cultural history, and the experiences of veterans, frontline professionals, and families.

Respect for Indigenous knowledge and for the environments where these plants grow is part of the wider conversation. Meaningful engagement includes listening to the communities connected to a tradition and considering ecological pressures, rather than treating plants, practices, or cultures simply as products.

A national conversation with local differences

Communities across the United States have explored different responses. Oakland’s City Council adopted a resolution in June 2019 placing investigation and arrest connected with specified adult entheogenic plant practices among its lowest enforcement priorities.

That example illustrates why the details matter: an enforcement policy is different from a commercial sales program. Maps and lists can introduce the movement’s reach, but the underlying government record is needed to understand what a particular jurisdiction actually adopted.

Read Oakland’s official 2019 legislative record (opens in a new tab)

Keep learning

Start with the movement’s own explanation of its goals, then compare policy claims with official records. Advocacy materials express a perspective; they do not establish medical safety, treatment effectiveness, or the law in a particular place.

• Decriminalize Nature: mission and principles (opens in a new tab)
• DEA: federal drug scheduling overview (opens in a new tab)

This page provides general education, not medical or legal advice. Frontline Fenix does not supply controlled substances or arrange unlawful access. Reviewed November 11, 2026.