Voters in Colorado approved a natural medicine program, which will start in 2025, and will allow licensed facilitators to conduct therapeutic sessions using psilocybin, the key ingredient in “magic mushrooms.”
People are not going to be able to take any psilocybin products home as they can with cannabis; instead, they will have to go through a screening process before any treatment is administered to properly determine any risks they may face during therapy. If therapy is deemed safe and appropriate, then they will remain in the facility with a licensed facilitator to both walk them through the experience and supervise the whole process.
However, personal use provisions are included in the law, saying that an adult who is 21 or older can share natural medicines, including psilocybin, psilocin, ibogaine, mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), with others who are also 21 or over for “counseling, spiritual guidance, community-based use, supported use, or related services.”
The Healing Advocacy Fund is a non-profit organization that advocates for safe and equitable access to psychedelic therapies which started in Oregon after psychedelic programs were approved in 2020.
They advocate for regulations that create programs of high quality that are accessible, equitable, and maximize safety. They also educate stakeholders, policymakers, regulators, and the general public on the programs in both Oregon and Colorado. They also support natural medicine healing centers, training schools, and facilitators in getting off the ground with technical assistance, learning collaboratives, and high-value programming. Finally, they serve as a convener for the natural medicine system in both Colorado and Oregon, ensuring to collaboratively address goals and challenges, organize around shared needs, deliver services to high standards and best practices to create a vibrant network of care that will serve as a model for the world.
The executive director, Taisa Poinsatte, said in an interview with Marijuana Moment that the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (the agency that regulates training and licensing for facilitators who will directly engage with people consuming natural medicine) has already approved psychedelic training programs for facilitators through Naropa University in Boulder, the Change Institute in Oregon, and the Integrative Psychiatry Institute in Niwot.
Licensed therapists, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and others provide feedback to the state both directly and through the Healing Advocacy Fund. They all see natural medicine as just another tool in the mental health care toolbox that can help people who are struggling.
Poinsatte also points out one difference between Colorado’s and Oregon’s programs: Colorado health care providers will be allowed to incorporate natural medicine into their existing practices, creating a much more flexible program in Colorado.
Erica Messinger, a nurse in Dolores, believes that education, especially for first responders, is going to help ensure that interacting with people who are using psychedelics understand what an adverse reaction is and how to treat it. She also said that the more people who understand how psychedelics have helped people, the more the public perception of natural medicine will change, a shift that is already happening in Oregon.
