National Group Takes Voting to Decriminalize Psychedelics in Colorado

A national advocacy group has tabled two separate proposals that would decriminalize psychedelics in Colorado to bring the issue to voters in next year’s general election. New Approach PAC, a Washington, DC-based political action committee, reportedly submitted its decriminalization proposals to the Colorado Secretary of State on December 3rd, according to media reports.

The first proposal would decriminalize the psychedelic drugs ibogaine, DMT, mescaline (without peyote), psilocybin, and psilocin for adults aged 21 and over, with an upper limit of four grams of psychoactive substances. As part of the measure, the governor would be obliged to appoint a natural medicine advisory board, which would be charged with implementing the decriminalization. The state would also license healing centers to deliver psychedelic drugs and assist customers with their use.

The second measure is similar to the first, but would only decriminalize psilocybin and psilocin, the psychedelic compounds found in magic mushrooms. According to the proposal, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies would implement decriminalization in a manner similar to that outlined in the first initiative.

If either or both of the proposals were approved by the Foreign Office Secretariat, then the organizers would need to collect the necessary signatures to qualify the measures for the vote in 2022.

“Our goal is to make the healing benefits of these natural remedies available to people who can help them, including veterans with PTSD, survivors of domestic or sexual abuse, people with treatment-resistant depression, and others for whom our typical mental health treatments are easy It’s not working, ”Ben Unger, New Approach PAC’s psychedelic program director, told Westword.

Psychedelics for health and wellness

Researchers continue to investigate the potential medicinal uses of psilocybin and other natural psychedelic drugs, often referred to as entheogenic plants and mushrooms. A study published last year in the journal JAMA Psychiatry found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy was a fast-acting and effective treatment for a group of 24 participants with major depressive disorders. A separate study published in 2016 found that treatment with psilocybin resulted in significant and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer.

Denver became the first major community to decriminalize psychedelics in 2019, and similar measures have since been passed by Oakland, Washington, DC, Detroit, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In October, city guides in Seattle, the largest US city to have passed such a law, passed a resolution decriminalizing psychedelics. And in November, Oregon voters approved a vote that decriminalized psilocybin and legalized the compound for therapeutic use.

Kevin Matthews, the leader of the group that campaigned for the decriminalization of psychedelics in Denver, is now campaigning for national lawyers’ efforts nationwide.

“We are excited to have New Approach as a partner who can help us bring this change across the state as we will create more opportunities for so many people to get the help they need in dealing with mental health . “Conditions that are otherwise devastating,” said Matthews. “We are driven by creating new healing opportunities for people and we look forward to working with the people of Colorado on this topic.”

Activists disagree on the best way to decriminalize psychedelics

But not all psychedelics activists in Colorado agree with the new approach’s proposals. Nicole Foerster, director of Decriminalize Nature Boulder County, said she was concerned about some of the language in the potential election campaign.

“They are trying to create these restrictive top-down guidelines in places where the grassroots community was strongest and the guidelines were passed by the grassroots community,” Foerster said at a virtual meeting of the group on December 16.

Foerster noted that local activists were not involved in drafting the New Approach proposals, but said they would now try to work with the national group.

“We are trying to push and influence them to only consume psilocybin and psilocin because they said they are not ready to do anything that does not create a regulatory framework,” she added.

Unger said the New Approach initiatives include a regulatory framework so that psychedelics can safely help as many people as possible.

“We believe that more people will be served and treated when psychedelics are made available in a safe, regulated, and consistent manner,” said Unger. “These natural remedies can be life-changing for so many people, and we want people to be confident that the treatment they are receiving is of high quality and has clear standards of accountability.”

Some local activists at the Decriminalize Nature Boulder County’s virtual meeting raised concerns that the New Approach may be moving too fast, but Matthews disagreed.

“We have been discussing the possibility of nationwide reform since this spring and I am proud of what we have achieved so far to ensure this initiative is completed on schedule for success,” said Matthews. “We have even more reach and collaboration ahead of us in the coming weeks, and it was exciting to work with so many of my colleagues and friends from our successful deployment to Denver in 2019.”