Larry Norris, PhD
Co-Founder & National Director, Decriminalize Nature
Co-founded Decriminalize Nature in Oakland (January 2019). Coordinates the 25+ jurisdiction national chapter network.
Biography
Larry Norris, PhD co-founded the Decriminalize Nature movement in Oakland, CA in January 2019. He coordinates the national chapter network spanning 25+ jurisdictions across the United States. The organizational model he built — grassroots local chapters passing municipal resolutions one city at a time — has been replicated from coast to coast.
The Oakland resolution Norris and his co-founders advanced in 2019 created the legal-political space that made Zide Door (Church of Ambrosia), Sacred Garden Community, and the broader Oakland psilocybin church ecosystem viable. Subsequent municipal decriminalizations in Santa Cruz (2020), Washington DC (Initiative 81), Detroit (Proposal E, 2021), Ann Arbor, Hazel Park, Ferndale, Ypsilanti, Seattle (Resolution 32021), and Minneapolis (Mayor Frey's executive order, July 2023) have all been built on the template Norris helped pioneer.
Norris sits on the DN National Board alongside Aikutzi Angelica Valadez, Shane Norte, and Moudou Baqui (Detroit).
Organizations
Why They Matter to the LearnShrooms Community
The Decriminalize Nature movement is the policy upstream of nearly every U.S. municipal psilocybin reform of the past six years. Norris is the operational architect of that movement at the national level.
Legal Context
For the legal landscape where Larry Norris, PhD operates, see psilocybin laws in California.