Friednash: Just like with pot, Denver is leading the way for legal psilocybin

Within the next few years, it is highly likely that Coloradoans will be able to legally use and share magic mushrooms in Colorado.  And, within the next decade, they will likely be sold like cannabis in dispensaries across the country.

And this Magical Mystery Tour all started right here in Denver.

Three years ago, Vice News interviewed me about Ordinance 301, a ballot issue being proposed in Denver to decriminalize psilocybin or magic mushrooms.

Vice reached out to me because I was the Denver City Attorney in 2012 when recreational marijuana was passed and Denver was the first city in the world to implement this law.  I was opposed to that initiative because I believed that it would devastate Colorado’s pristine reputation and with it, our ability to recruit and retain businesses as well as our strong tourism industry.

That was my initial flashback when this issue–which was flying under the radar–was raised to me by Vice News.  Having been part of the cannabis revolution, I responded to them by saying, “I think we have the experience from the marijuana issue that shows the sky’s not going to fall if this passes.”

Indeed, hindsight is 20/20 and the record reflects that both Denver and Colorado did a tremendous job of creating a robust cannabis regulatory system that other states have used as their model.  The list of horrors never materialized here.  In fact, if anything, cannabis legalization had the opposite impact.

Ordinance 301 followed a similar path and Denver became the first city in America to decriminalize psilocybin with a razor-thin 50.56% margin in May 2019.

Today, advocates continue to test the waters of new substances using the cannabis legalization playbook.  And, quietly, a national movement has emerged gaining traction in conservative and liberal cities and states alike with the support of both Democrats and Republicans.

Psilocybin, like cannabis, is a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, along with fentanyl and heroin, meaning that the government views psilocybin as having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. As a result, it is completely illegal under federal law.  And, like cannabis, the Drug Enforcement Agency, would like you to believe the narrative that psilocybin mushrooms are very dangerous.

But is it?

There is increasing evidence that the DEA appears to be the ones hallucinating here as psilocybin has been found to be the safest of all drugs people take recreationally, according to the Global Drug Survey, which is the world’s biggest annual drug survey.  Unlike fentanyl and heroin, the risk of fatal overdose or addiction is very small.  “Death from toxicity is almost unheard of with poisoning with more dangerous fungi seeing a much greater risk in terms of serious harms”.

Medical research has shown that psilocybin has significant promise as an effective treatment for a broad range of health issues from substance abuse disorders like…