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Oregon decriminalizes illegal drugs, four more states legalize weed
Possessing small amounts of illegal drugs will no longer mean jail time in Oregon, and four other states have legalized recreational marijuana on election day.
Happy Veterans Day! Thanks and thanks to all of our military veterans. Our thoughts and gratitude are with you today.
I’m Winston Gieseke, philanthropy and special sections editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, bringing you the latest headlines from our great state.
In California brings you the best Golden State stories and commentary from the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it for free, straight to your inbox.
Will psychedelic drugs become legal in California next year?
California lawmakers will consider next year whether to decriminalize psychedelic drugs.
State Senator Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, on Tuesday revealed his intention to introduce a bill decriminalizing possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and other psychedelics, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
While this sounds drastic, it has actually become a movement across the country in recent years. Last week, voters in Oregon passed a measure allowing the supervised use of psilocybin, a natural psychedelic compound, in a therapeutic setting. Simply put, this means that Oregon is the first state to legalize psychedelic (or “magic”) mushrooms. In another first, state voters also decriminalized small amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and psychedelics; possession will only result in a fine of $ 100.
A similar resolution was passed in Oakland last year.
Wiener, who said he does not take psychedelics himself, noted that cultures around the world have used them since the dawn of time. “We know that psychedelics can be used safely,” he said. “We know they appear to have important medicinal uses.”
Additionally, Wiener plans to reintroduce legislation that would allow San Francisco and Oakland, both of which are experiencing increasing opioid overdoses, to experiment with safe injection sites that would allow users to take drugs under supervision. .
Finally, a break after the forest fires – but for how long?
It was California’s worst year for wildfires. Five of the six largest fires in state history began in August and September, and collectively they ravaged more than 2,500 square miles – an area about the size of Delaware – and killed 22 people.
But the state won a temporary reprieve as temperatures dropped, rain fell and snow dusted the mountains. However, this is hardly comforting for firefighters who know that the state is still on top of what many are calling “fire season” – a term they actually discourage because they fear the public should let their guard down. and become carefree in the face of campfires, fireworks, cigarette butts and other sources of fire.
Despite the break, the worst may not be over this year. Just watch the Santa Anas, said David Houck, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com. Those winds quickly spread two fires that broke out last month, one threatening neighborhoods in Irvine and the rest of Yorba Linda.
A mild wind from Santa Ana would have hit SoCal this weekend, but not much is expected, especially after the recent rains, according to Houck. Still, experts say it’s impossible to get around how the effects of climate change and generally warmer temperatures are lengthening the most intense times of year for fires.
As Scott Stephens, professor of fire science at the University of California at Berkeley, put it, “Southern California has had a fire season that has lasted for years.”
Need a smile? Be sure to watch this video of a donkey running around the house after surviving a forest fire.
San Francisco bans natural gas in new buildings from 2021
In what supervisor Rafael Mandelman called “A gradual but important measure to help save our planet,” the San Francisco Supervisory Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to ban natural gas in new buildings, starting next year.
The measure hopes to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and improve safety.
Natural gas is believed to be responsible for about 40% of San Francisco’s overall greenhouse gas emissions and 80% of building emissions. Mandelman, who introduced the bill, said cleaner, fully electric buildings not only reduce emissions across the city, but are safer and improve indoor air quality,
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the legislation “will apply to more than 54,000 homes and 32 million square feet of commercial space in the city’s development pipeline.”
San Francisco sees increase in COVID cases
In other Golden Gate City news, San Francisco officials are alarmed by the significant rise in COVID cases last week, which was worse than any previous outbreaks.
As a result, the city announced a decision on Tuesday to close restaurants inside restaurants, effective Saturday morning. In addition, the number of people allowed inside gymnasiums and theaters will be reduced and high schools will not reopen for in-person learning yet.
So far, during the pandemic, America’s second-densest city has managed to keep infection rates and total cases well below those in other parts of California, in part by taking an approach conservative. For a large part of the population, the wearing of masks has become de rigueur and – unlike SoCal’s approach – the city has hesitated to reopen businesses and public spaces.
But since the end of October, new daily infections have increased by 150%, which Dr Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, director of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UC San Francisco, attributes to[ing] some extra risks “every time disease rates go down.
Officials in San Francisco (city and county are one) fear that if this outbreak continues, the city could see its daily total of new infections increase tenfold, meaning the number would drop from 32 cases per day at the end of October to 300 per day by the end of the year.
“This suggests much wider viral transmission and could be explosive,” San Francisco director of public health Dr. Grant Colfax said Tuesday. “If we don’t stop and back off, it is quite plausible that we are facing a situation where our health care system could be overwhelmed.
Blow out the candles and make a wish
November 11 birthday greetings go to Barbara Boxer, who served as United States Senator from California from 1993 to 2017, and Leonardo DiCaprio, from Los Angeles and star of the “Titanic”. Happy Birthday!
And finally, warm congratulations to Judge Martin Jenkins, who was unanimously upheld in the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, making him the first openly gay judge. The Mercury News reports that the Judicial Appointments Commission praised Jenkins for his “brilliant intelligence, first-class temperament and boundless humanity.”
In California, a roundup of news from the editorial staff of the USA Today Network. Also contributing: The Mercury News, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle.
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