Earlier this month, voters made Colorado the second state — after Oregon — to decriminalize psilocybin and psilocin, the psychedelic compounds found in so-called “magic mushrooms.”
Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act, which passed by a narrow margin, allows for the use of mushrooms at state-regulated “healing centers” under the supervision of trained facilitators. It also legalizes personal private use, growing, and sharing of psilocybin and psilocin, as well as three additional psychedelic compounds — mescaline, ibogaine, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) — by adults over the age of 21. Retail sales are not permitted.
Stacy Fischer, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and program co-leader of cancer prevention and control at the CU Cancer Center, has studied the use of psilocybin in therapeutic settings as she and Jim Grigsby, PhD, a professor of psychology at CU Denver, prepare to launch a study of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat psychiatric and existential distress in people with late-stage cancer.
We talked with Fischer about the new legislation and what authorities need to watch out for as they work to enact it.