8 February 8 - 14, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents was Jan. 19, but residents can still propose changes if they get enough signatures on a petition. Julie Oliver, executive director and co- founder of Ground Game Texas, said the or- ganization has launched a petition campaign to amend the charter to include elements that would decriminalize possession of misde- meanor amounts of marijuana in Dallas. Ad- ditionally, the amendment would prevent the city from paying for THC concentration tests. In 2019, Texas passed House Bill 1325, which legalized hemp in the state. Hemp looks and smells identical to mari- juana. That’s why the amendment would also eliminate smell as a probable cause to search someone or their vehicle. “We don’t want police to be violating civil liberties when people could have a perfectly legal substance on them,” Oliver, who is from South Oak Cliff, said. The amendment would also require the police to report to the City Council and Community Police Over- sight Board quarterly about the misde- meanor marijuana arrests and citations they issue. Other proposed changes to the charter include increasing the size of City Council, longer term limits, more pay for council members and moving local elections from May to November, according to The Dallas Morning News. Ground Game Texas needs 20,000 signa- tures from registered Dallas voters, but it’s hoping to collect closer to 35,000. They’re collecting more signatures than needed in case unregistered voters or residents from other cities sign the petition. Asked why the group is taking on the effort now, Oliver referenced a report issued by Dal- las’ Office of Community Police Oversight in partnership with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leader- ship Conference Education Fund’s New Era of Public Safety initiative. That report found dis- proportionate enforcement of low-level of- fenses in the city, including for marijuana offenses. While the white and Black popula- tions in Dallas are about the same, Black peo- ple are arrested and cited more for marijuana offenses, including low-level possession, ac- cording to the report. There could also be ram- ifications for officers who choose not to abide by the charter amendment if it’s passed, but this would likely be left to the discretion of the police department. This is a bit different from Ground Game Texas’ efforts in other cities, where they’ve helped to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana through ballot initia- tives, including Killeen, San Marcos and Austin. Those cities are now facing a law- suit from Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton over the decrimnalizatino measures, so it’s hard to know how that case, which was an- nounced a few days after Ground Game be- gan its efforts in Dallas, will affect the local moves in the future. “The difference is we’ll be embedding this in the city charter as opposed to creat- ing an ordinance that could get repealed by City Council,” Oliver said. “A charter amendment will always have to go to the voters to decide. And so, if the City Council decided they didn’t like this, they’d have to take it to the voters to repeal it. That’s prob- ably one of the biggest differences from the work we’ve done in the past.” Even though the winter weather may make it difficult for canvassers to gather sig- natures, Oliver is optimistic about the effort in Dallas. She also doesn’t think the effort will face much opposition. “I certainly don’t think that when we col- lect the signatures and it goes to ballot that we’re going to lose in November because it is a very popular issue,” Oliver said. “Unfortu- nately, the politicians are well behind the people on this issue.” Ground Game Texas got decriminaliza- tion passed in Denton through a ballot initia- tive but the city has been reluctant to enforce the change. If Dallas shows similar reluc- tance, Oliver hopes voters will consider this when deciding who to elect to city leader- ship. “If they’re not honoring the will of the people, then come election time I hope they will use their vote as their voice,” she said. Ground Game Texas will continue collect- ing signatures until some time in May. After that, the petition will go to the city secretary to verify that the signatures are from regis- tered voters in Dallas. From there, the amendment will be brought to the City Coun- cil and then placed on the November ballot. Loca activist Changa Higgins said he and his group, Dallas Action, have been working on minimizing police interactions, particu- larly around misdemeanor offenses. He noted that the Office of Community Police Oversight report showed a drop in arrests for marijuana possession but that enforce- ment is still disproportionate. “What that says is systemically and culturally, there’s still a practice within DPD that targets and profiles African-Americans for marijuana arrests,” Higgins said. Dallas Action has been pushing for DPD to stop charging and arresting people for posses- sion of 4 ounces or less of weed. In 2017, Dallas passed cite-and-release, which allows people to accept a court summons in lieu of a trip to jail if they’re caught with 4 ounces or less of marijuana, although one can still get jail time for possession under cite-and-release. In 2021, DPD changed its general orders to direct officers to stop charging people for possession of 2 ounces or less. However, Hig- gins said cite-and-release can still be dispro- portionately enforced, and the 2021 change to DPD’s general orders didn’t go far enough. “There’s been some steps made, so this is a natural progression for Dallas Action,” Hig- gins said of the proposed charter amend- ment. Dallas Action is helping Ground Game Texas gather signatures for its petition. ▼ SHROOMS PSYCHEDELIC INDEED WE TRIPPED ON LEGAL MAGIC MUSHROOM GUMMIES (THIS TIME). BY JACOB VAUGHN S o, our last bout with legal mushroom gummies didn’t go so well. We didn’t trip like we had hoped on the ama- nita muscaria edibles we purchased at our local CBD shop. We knew not to expect a traditional trip like one we might get on acid, but we expected to at least feel some- thing. We didn’t. But some people have since reached out to us with a few suggestions to get us closer to that psychedelic feeling we were looking for. Some said we weren’t using the amanita properly. “Try it in a dark room [with] music [with] a sleep mask on,” one reader wrote to us. “The experience is incredible, very frac- tal and holographic [with] a feeling of weightlessness.” Another reader told us we needed to mix the amanita with delta-9 THC, the psycho- active compound in weed that gets users high. We also considered that we may not have taken enough, as our highest dose of ama- nita was 2,500 milligrams. Other readers steered us toward another product, magic mushroom gummies by a company called TRE House. Wunder was another brand of gummy people recom- mended. The TRE House gummies are dif- ferent from the others we tried as they don’t contain any amanita muscaria. The readers said this product would give us the psyche- delic trip we were looking for. Naturally, we had to try out all of these to see if we had gotten it wrong when it came to amanita and whether there are products on the market that will make you trip. Before we did more experimenting with amanita, we wanted to consult an expert. We reached out to Christian Rasmussen, CEO and owner of MN Nice Botanicals, a Minnesota- based company that sells amanita products, in- cluding gummies. He said there are some common misconceptions about amanita mus- caria. For one, it’s not a psychedelic. He said it’s really not a product to get people high, either. “Largely, it’s really for healing and connecting people with larger, better aspects of them- selves,” he said. Rasmussen said one thing to consider when looking for amanita edibles is whether they’re actually amanita. He said many prod- ucts marketed as amanita muscaria have other things in them, such as hallucinogens like 4 ACO DMT or some other analogue of psilocy- bin, the main psychedelic compound in real magic mushrooms. With amanita muscaria products, a micro- dose would be between 0.2 grams and 2 grams, Rasmussen explained. He said the experience on this dose is going to be “sub-perceptual,” meaning most people won’t notice the effects, but they can be therapeutic. “A lot of people say they notice a reduction in anxiety or it helps with sleep,” he said. Our highest dose last time was about 2 grams. A more perceptual dose would be be- tween 2 grams and 5 grams. On this dose, people can expect to get some muscle relax- ation, lowering of inhibitions and some body euphoria. These feelings are more potent in the 5- to 10-gram range. ( A typical aspirin is 300 milligrams.) Things get different at 10–15 grams. “It’s almost as if you’re in a waking dream in a sense,” Rasmussen said. “There can start to be some uncomfortable physical sensations coupled with some even more intense and comfortable physical sensations. “If they’re not prepared for it or know what’s happening to them, it can be kind of scary,” he said. “Honestly, most people shouldn’t be delving into these higher-dose realms.” Doses of 15–30 grams can send people into a “spiritual delirium,” Rasmussen said. “There’s thought loops and time loops. It’s a pretty hallucinogenic experience. It’s not necessarily psychedelic. … But it’s for sure hallucinogenic.” He said amanita muscaria tends to have a reverse tolerance associated with it, mean- ing many people will need to microdose for a week or two before being able to feel the effects of a larger dose. “Most everybody re- ally enjoys it once it clicks for them,” he said. It hasn’t quite clicked for us yet. We didn’t microdose for a week or two like Rasmussen suggested, but we wanted to try a higher dose to see if we could feel some of the ef- fects he described. So, we went back to our local CBD shop, CBD American Shaman, and grabbed the same Kruz brand amanita muscaria gummies as before. This time, we ate the whole bag, which was equivalent to about 5 grams. We took it with 90 milligrams of delta-9 THC as some- one had recommended. We shut off the lights and listened to some music. Still nothing per- ceivable to us. At one point, we thought we may have felt some body euphoria and a low- ering of our inhibitions, but that Jacob Vaughn Seven of these bad boys and you’ll definitely be spending a day on the moon. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
