For $660, a person can partake in a 12-hour psilocybin mushroom trip guided journey at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness in Boulder, Colorado.
The psychedelic guides or practitioners have various backgrounds in mental health counseling and art therapy, and they hold licensures, but they don’t facilitate mushroom and DMT journeys with the purpose of providing medical treatment.
“We guide them through the experience, we support them in the process, but there’s not any like psychotherapy going on,” Daniel McQueen, co-founder of The Center for Medicinal Mindfulness, said. “It’s more of a supported space.”
Cannabis and ketamine are the only psychedelics cleared to be used as medical treatment. While the method of administration of mushrooms and DMT may resemble how researchers seek to treat ailments such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression, the psychedelic journey is designated to be “supported personal use.”
But in 2026, Colorado will break ground to permit and regulate psilocybin and psilocin for medicinal use — all thanks to the passage of Proposition 122 two years ago.
The co-author of the bill, Sean McAllister, a lawyer specializing in psychedelic law, said the state will be paving the way for merging psychedelic therapy with legitimate medical treatment.
“It’s groundbreaking in a way,” McAllister said. “People with a therapy and doctor’s licenses are going to be actively able to practice medical and mental health services as part of psychedelic facilitation. This is different from the Oregon model, where there’s no medical or mental health practice allowed in the facilitation.”
In 2020, Oregon residents voted for psilocybin to be permitted for “therapeutic use” in Measure 109. The Oregon Health Authority was put in charge of regulating the distribution of psilocybin to licensed service centers. Clients don’t need a prescription or medical referral to partake in the services but are required to stay at the facility for the duration of their trip.
On that same ballot, voters passed Measure 110, which decriminalized all drugs, including heroin and fentanyl. But, with the state experiencing an increase in overdoses, the legislature walked back its decriminalization of drugs, reinstating criminal penalties for all drugs, including DMT and mushrooms. Licensed psilocybin service centers remain legal.
Meanwhile, Colorado is reaching its second year of decriminalizing mushrooms and DMT for personal use and growth — making Colorado more free than Amsterdam for psychedelics.
However, the mass selling of mushrooms is still illegal. Since these centers and psychedelic journey facilitators are providing a service rather than just selling a product, they are operating within the confounds of the law. But still, the state has issued at least ten cease and desist letters to facilitators, according to McAllister.
“The state has a very narrow view of what’s allowed in this area, and the more it looks like you’re trying to sell a product and pretending you’re providing a service, the more of a target you could be from the state of Colorado,” McAllister said.
Just as it was one of the first states to legalize marijuana use, Colorado is leading the charge in making psychedelic drugs such as DMT and psilocybin accessible to the masses.
“You can sit in a circle in Colorado and share mushrooms for free, and that’s the only place in America you could do that to get paid for harm reduction services,” McAllister said. “It’s the most free place in the world for psychedelics.”
Last October, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vetoed legislation that would have decriminalized the possession and personal use of psychedelic mushrooms, DMT, and mescaline — calling for more research.
“California should immediately begin work to set up regulated treatment guidelines – replete with dosing information, therapeutic guidelines, rules to prevent against exploitation during guided treatments, and medical clearance of no underlying psychoses,” Newsom said.
While not in favor of decriminalizing mushrooms and DMT, Republican California State Sen. Brian Jones has witnessed how psychedelic therapy sponsored by Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions has benefited service members struggling with PTSD.
He is a co-sponsor of the Heal Our Heroes Act, which would allow veterans to seek psilocybin and psilocin in alleviating mental health issues.
“If we send these warriors to go fight our fights across the globe, and for lack of a better term, do our dirty work, to protect us and keep us safe here in the United States of America. And then they come back and they have these mental health challenges, and we’re not taking it seriously and doing enough for them … if they want to pursue this as an experimental treatment, I’m open to that,” Jones said.
As interest in psilocybin and psilocin for medicinal use rises, the Drug Enforcement Administration is calling for greater production of the psychedelics in its revised 2024 quotas. The DEA is raising the levels of psilocybin from 20,000 grams to 30,000 grams and psilocin from 24,000 grams to 36,000 grams.
“These proposed increases demonstrate DEA’s support for research with schedule I controlled substances,” the notice states. “The proposed increases reflect research and development needs as part of the process for seeking the FDA approval of new drug products.”
In December, the DEA will hold an administrative hearing regarding the Biden administration’s proposal to move cannabis from a Schedule I (a classification in which a drug is determined to have no medicinal benefits) to a Schedule III.
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McAllister hopes to one day see psychedelics follow suit.
“This 70-year effort to criminalize people for what they put in their bodies is a failed experiment, and Colorado continues to lead the way on changing the law and having a more rational drug policy,” McAllister said.