Tag: rhode island

Rhode Island House Panel Weighs Bill That Would Temporarily Legalize Psilocybin

Lawmakers on Rhode Island’s House Judiciary Committee considered a bill on Thursday that would effectively legalize psilocybin mushrooms in the state, temporarily removing penalties around possession, home cultivation and sharing of psilocybin until mid-2026.

The proposal, H. 7047, from Rep. Brandon Potter (D), would not establish a commercial retail system around the psychedelic—at least until after federal reform is enacted. Until then, it would exempt up to an ounce of psilocybin from the state’s law against controlled substances provided that it “has been securely cultivated within a person’s residence for personal use” or is possessed by “one person or shared by one person to another.”

The measure is identical to a bill passed 56–11 by the House last year, though that matter did not move forward in the Senate before the end of the session.

“I don’t think it was that long ago that if you were to put a proposal like this forward, it would be thought of as very controversial,” Potter told the panel on Thursday. “But I think it’s become much more popularized and people are well aware of it, especially when you see just like the abundance and overwhelming amount of clinical research and medical science that is promoting the effects this has had on people.”

“These are not, you know, small, low-budget operations,” he added of emerging scientific research indicating the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. “These are leading medical institutions like Johns Hopkins and Yale and Stanford and so on and so forth—NYU, Columbia.”

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Local outlet calls on Providence, Rhode Island to ‘sever any and all official ties’ with HP Lovecraft

Providence, Rhode Island has officially designated September 10 Edward Mitchell Bannister Day as a tribute to the trailblazing 19th-century African-American painter. While some simply celebrated the move, others used it as an opportunity to suggest that the city’s other artistic giant, HP Lovecraft, should be canceled. 

GoLocal Providence ran an editorial piece on Monday urging Providence to erase any trace of the acclaimed horror author, citing statements he had made about black people and Jews.

“With the celebration of African Bannister’s contributions to the city’s vibrant art community, Providence, once, and for all, needs to sever any and all official ties to Lovecraft,” the outlet wrote. To not do so undermines the city’s efforts to celebrate its racially and ethnically diverse past and present.”

While the authors described Lovecraft as a “talented horror writer,” they accused him of also being a “documented anti-Semite and racist,” pointing out that there is an online game wherein players have to choose whether a given quote is attributable to him or Adolf Hitler.

“These weren’t the ‘antiquated’ musings of America’s slave-holding founding fathers; nor were they of the Civil War era,” they explained. “They were the beliefs of a documented racist and anti-Semite well into the 20th century, at the very moment the seeds were being sewn for the Second World War and the Holocaust.”

The authors cited Lovecraft’s claims that black people were “fundamentally … biological inferior of all white and even mongolian races,” as well as one instance where he wrote that, “Just as some otherwise normal men hate the sight or presence of a cat, so have I hated the presence of a Jew.”

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Rhode Island senator arrested, accused of keying car with anti-Biden bumper sticker

State Senator Josh Miller was arrested on Thursday, accused of keying a car in the Garden City shopping center parking lot that was sporting a bumper sticker reading “Biden sucks.”

Body-worn camera videos released by the Cranston Police Department showed Miller initially denied keying the man’s car when stopped by police at Garden City, but at his home later Thursday night acknowledged he did so because he felt he was being threatened by the man.

The arrest report says the alleged victim returned to his car parked near Ben & Jerry’s Thursday afternoon and heard a scratching sound coming from the passenger side.

“Upon checking, he observed a large scratch on his passenger side rear door and a male, later identified as Joshua Miller, quickly walking away, holding keys in his right hand and gripping a single key which he says was pointing towards his vehicle,” Officer Alberto Diaz wrote in the report.

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Rhode Island Lawmakers Approve Psilocybin Legalization Bill

A Rhode Island legislative committee this week approved a bill to legalize the possession and cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms, making the state the latest of several to propose or advance legislation to ease the prohibitions on magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs. The measure, House Bill 5923, was approved by the House Judiciary Committee by a 12-2 vote on Tuesday, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. A companion bill is pending in the Rhode Island Senate, where the chamber’s Judiciary Committee is holding the bill for further study.

If passed, the legislation would eliminate criminal penalties for adults who possess or cultivate up to one ounce of psilocybin mushrooms for personal use. Up to one ounce of mushrooms could also be shared by one adult with another. The bill is slated to go into effect on July 1, and an amendment approved by the Judiciary Committee sets a July 1, 2025, sunset for the legislation.

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Republican councilman caught smoking crack and fentanyl in his car

A city councilman in Cranston, Rhode Island who chaired the local Republican Party was arrested on Monday for drug possession after police found him smoking a mix of crack cocaine and fentanyl in his car, reportedThe Providence Journal this week.

Matthew Reilly, 41, a first-term council member, a licensed attorney and a youth soccer coach, was found by cops sitting in his car Monday, the Journal reported.

“The police found Reilly around 11:30 a.m. in a parked SUV after a passerby told a patrolman that a man was possibly choking in a parking lot,” according to the report.

“‘He appeared to be sleeping or unconscious while having difficulty breathing/choking,’ patrolman Luis A. Collado wrote in a police report. ‘I opened the door and had to shake him in order for him to wake up. At that point I noticed that he had a glass pipe that’s typically used to smoke crack cocaine from in his hand and a lighter.'”

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Rhode Island Bill Would Make It Possible For Illegal Immigrants To Vote

A new bill making its way through the system in Rhode Island would make it possible for non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.

Another New England state, Vermont, is currently trying to do the same thing.

When you look at these policy proposals, the situation at the southern border starts to make more sense. Democrats seem to be trying to outnumber the people who would vote against them.

The Federalist reports:

Rhode Island Bill Would Open Elections To Illegal Aliens, In Democrats’ Latest Push For Noncitizen Voting

Democrats in the Rhode Island General Assembly have introduced legislation that, if passed, would grant localities the ability to give non-U.S. citizens the right to vote in municipal elections. The measure marks the latest attempt by leftists to give foreigners and, in this case, even illegal immigrants the opportunity to influence the U.S. electoral process.

Under the new bill (H 5461), cities and towns would be permitted to “allow all residents of the municipality to vote in municipal elections for municipal officeholders regardless of the immigration status of the residents.”

The measure also stipulates that the locality’s board of canvassers is required to coordinate with Rhode Island’s secretary of state and board of elections to “develop the forms and instructions to implement the provisions” of the new law, “as well as any rules and regulations necessary to ensure that any ballot for municipal officeholders only is kept separate and apart from ballots distributed to [citizen] voters … and counted separately for transmission to the board of elections.”

The legislation does not specify what constitutes proof of residency.

Allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections will just be the first step, the test run.

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Rhode Islanders with high-capacity gun magazines face Sunday deadline

Rhode Islander gun owners have until Sunday to turn in large capacity magazines or modify them.

In June, Gov. Dan McKee signed a law that bans magazines with more than 10 rounds. It was upheld by a judge on the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

We are pleased with the decision. We expected that to be the case. Rhode Island is trying to make sure we get ahead of any potential problems, and we see them happening and occurring around the country on a regular basis with shootings,” McKee said.

Some local gun shop owners said their clients aren’t the ones who are causing trouble.

“Restricting the number of mags is not going to help in any way curbing any kind of crime, so people are frustrated. It made people feel they did something wrong, and they didn’t,” said David DeLoia, co-owner of Heritage Gun and Coin in West Warwick.

The attorney general’s office said magazines that hold more than 10 bullets can be dropped off at any police station. They can also be sold to a gun dealer or legal owner out of state.

Heritage Gun And Coin Co-owner David DeLoia said people keep buying.

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School district official declares that using the wrong pronoun is an ‘act of psychological violence’ that ‘needs to be dealt with accordingly’

A Rhode Island elected school board official involved in promoting a diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda in the district, recently came under fire for claiming that intentionally “misgendering” someone is an “act of violence” that “needs to be dealt with accordingly.”

Jennifer Lima, elected member of the North Kingstown School Committee, shared a social media post from an activist group on November 12 that read, “Purposefully misgendering students is an act of violence. Respond accordingly.”

Lima added to the shared post, “I recognize that some may find the use of the word violence in this post extreme.”

“Any act of violence in our schools which creates an unsafe environment (physically or emotionally by or for any member of the school community) needs to be dealt with accordingly,” Lima continued.

Lima was consequently slammed online by critics who interpreted her post as advocating a violent response to using incorrect pronouns.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Lima explained, “I also believe that purposely misgendering someone is an act of psychological violence when done deliberately and consistently and should be responded to accordingly.”

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‘Orwellian’: School District Encourages Entire Town To Report Violations Of ‘Anti-Racism’ Policy

A Rhode Island school district is encouraging its community to report anyone who violates the district’s anti-racism policy.

The “Anti-racism, Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy” at South Kingstown school district in Rhode Island says anyone in the educational community is “personally responsible” and must “immediately report” different kinds of racism including, “cyber racism,” “interpersonal racism” and “institutional racism,” according to the district policy. The policy states that “any member of South Kingstown is encouraged to report incidents or allegations of incidents” that break anti-racism policy guidelines.

The school district administers “No Contact Orders,” prohibiting any verbal and physical contact between the alleged offender and victim, once a report is filed, the policy states. The policy aims to create a district that is “actively anti-racist and anti-discriminatory.”

“The South Kingstown School District Anti-Racism policy creates a paranoid, stasi-style online reporting system for any member of the Town of South Kingstown to report not only incidents of racism, but also cyber racism and interpersonal racism as defined by the district,” Nicole Solas, South Kingstown resident and Independent Women’s Forum senior fellow, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Violations of the policy include racism, defined as “systemic oppression of a racial group,” and cyber racism, which is racism on websites and blogs, as well as text messages, emails, images and videos, the policy stated. Interpersonal racism, defined as pre-judgment or bias in “privately held beliefs, conscious and unconscious and external behaviors and actions towards others,” and institutional racism, which is “inequitable outcomes for students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in institutions,” are both included in the policy.

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Rhode Island Dems Submit Bill To Double State Income Tax For Parents Of Unvaccinated Minors

Rhode Island Democrats want to punish the parents of children who refused to submit to the COVID vaccine mandates.

If passed, the bill will financially cripple individuals by doubling their personal income tax and requiring them to pay a monthly fine of $50.

State Senator Samuel Bell is the lead legislator backing the bill, which mandates all Rhode Island residents, workers, and taxpayers receive a COVID-19 vaccine as well as any subsequent boosters that the state’s director of the department of health shall require.

The bill’s text can be read here.

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