Alaska activists officially started a petition drive for a ballot initiative in 2026 to legalize some psychedelics, such as DMT and psilocybin.
Last week, after receiving booklets for the Alaska Natural Medicine initiative from the state and about a month following the certification of the measure by the lieutenant-governor’s office for distribution, both paid and unpaid petitioners began working on the campaign.
David Karabelnikoff is a member of the steering group for the campaign and Alaska’s policy advisor. He told MEDCAN24 that the 35,000 signatures requirement was a challenge.
Karabelnikoff has collected his own signatures during the past seven days and said, “I’ve found support from an unexpectedly wide range of people.” This included “a long-time member” from Narcotics Anonymous. The group counsels on the general principle of abstinence.
Karabelnikoff stated that there are “a variety of different cross-sections” of people who would be willing to let the voters decide on the issue at the polling booth. Plant medicine and natural remedies are a topic that crosses many different topics.
He said that he found both liberals and conservatives to be supportive. “Alaska has a unique balance—also with this really strong libertarian spirit up here, where, if you’re staying in your own lane and not hurting anyone, then we kind of feel like the government should stay out of our business.”
A policy outline from the campaign explains the proposal as “building off of” Colorado’s voter-approved 2022 Natural Medicine Health Act, under which facilitators recently administered the state’s first legal dose of psilocybin.
Alaskan legislation would allow adults over 21 to use DMT, nonpeyote mescaline, psilocybin or psilocin for noncommercial purposes, cultivate them and share with others. This model is popular among proponents of psychedelic drug reform.
This measure allows individual practitioners to offer services instead of relying on a healing center. [natural medicine] In their policy, organizers say that “by increasing accessibility, they can increase access to the rural communities of Alaska”.
The cultivation would have to be done in an area no bigger than 12 feet x 12 feet, out of the public eye. And growers must take reasonable measures to keep minors away.
Adults would have to be able to transfer psychedelics without payment.
A civil penalty of up to 100 dollars could be levied if the substance is consumed in public.
On the commercial side, Alaska would license healing centers—where certified facilitators would supervise psychedelic administration—as well as testing labs, cultivation facilities, product manufacturers, handlers and other related businesses.
License applications would have to be submitted no later than 1 July 2028.
Alaskans would have to own the majority of facilities, and at least 50% of them must be owned by Alaskans.
The proposed initiative would protect traditional healers for the “ceremonial or spiritual use of plant medicine” by granting legal exemptions from state drug laws. The proposal states that they would not be required to have a license from the state, but must hold credentials or certifications as traditional practitioners.
Natural Medicine Control Board, an “agency of quasi-judicial and regulation” within the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, will oversee this system. Members would come from public safety and health as well as a person from rural areas, someone representing the natural-medicine industry, an Alaska Native Traditional Healer, someone who practices psychedelic therapy professionally, or someone from either the general public, or natural medicine sector.
The program would be governed by a Natural Medicine Advisory Committee, consisting 15 members. The body’s members would be mental health professionals or natural medicine researchers and therapists, as well as tribal representatives, a doctor, military veterans, first-responders, healthcare specialists, etc.
The traditional uses of the measure It would also establish a Traditional Use Council, which will develop education materials and develop best practices for Indigenous psychedelic users and harm-reduction principles. This would also include a different credentialing process, which “may consider lineage, apprentice, community recognition and cultural practices, instead of formal clinical or educational training.”
The State Department of Law analyzed the legality of the proposed amendment, taking into consideration federal law.
According to Attorney General Treg T. Taylor (R), the law would not be in conflict with federal policy any more than it is now, as the marijuana legalization legislation of the state.
While the “Instant” [Controlled Substances Act] “We found no authority that was sufficient to declare this initiative as unconstitutional at face value,” said he of the cannabis initiative.
Taylor explained that the same logic applies to the “psychedelics” measure. We do not see any significant difference based on what type of substance is at the heart of the initiative. Unresolved are the questions about federal enforcement, or lack thereof, and when a state passes divergent drug laws. In what extent [the psychedelics measure’ presents pre-emption and enforcement concerns, Alaska’s marijuana regulatory scheme currently implicates those same legal issues.”
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A poll last year found that nearly half (49.4 percent) of Alaska adults would support a ballot measure to more broadly remove criminal penalties for using substances such as psilocybin mushrooms.
That support rose markedly—to nearly two thirds (65 percent)—when participants were told that Alaska has high rates of mental illnesses that could potentially be treated with psychedelics.
Photo elements courtesy of carlosemmaskype and Apollo.
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