Dried psilocybin mushrooms. Dried psilocybin mushrooms. (Getty Images)
This story first appeared in Colorado Newsline .
Coloradans will soon be able to take psychedelic mushrooms in a regulated environment as the state’s natural medicine program finishes taking shape this year.
The voter-approved program will allow licensed facilitators to conduct therapeutic sessions using psilocybin, the active ingredient found in “magic mushrooms,” starting in 2025. Colorado voters approved Proposition 122 in 2022, making Colorado the second state, after Oregon, to decriminalize the use of psychedelic mushrooms.
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Patients won’t simply be able to walk into a healing center and leave with psychedelic mushrooms or other psilocybin products for consumption at a later time, as is the case with cannabis dispensaries. Someone interested in participating will need to go through a screening process to determine any risks of taking natural medicine. If they are deemed an appropriate candidate for psychedelic therapy, they will take natural medicine in a secure, regulated environment with a licensed facilitator to supervise and walk them through the entire experience.
As the new year begins, Colorado regulators say they’ve received a handful of applications for the licenses that will be required to cultivate mushrooms, manufacture natural medicines and operate healing centers.
Tasia Poinsatte, Colorado director for the Healing Advocacy Fund, said a lag is expected between license applications opening this month and healing centers actually serving clients. Healing centers could open as early as April, but early summer is more likely, she said.
The Healing Advocacy Fund is a nonprofit organization that advocates safe and equitable access to psychedelic therapies. It started in Oregon after voters there approved a state-regulated psilocybin program in 2020.AdvertisementPersonal use provisions of the law, which have been in place since December 2022, allow adults 21 or older to share natural medicines including psilocybin, psilocyn, ibogaine, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine with others 21 and older for “counseling, spiritual guidance, community-based use, supported use, or related services.”Advocates say psilocybin will serve as another tool in the mental health care toolkit that can help Coloradans who are struggling, particularly veterans. Research has suggested psilocybin could be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive […]
Colorado can now issue licenses to psychedelic mushroom therapy facilitators
