Psychedelics: Colorado consecrates therapeutic potential – 06/02/2023 – Psychedelic Turn

On the 19th, the largest conference ever held on consciousness-altering substances begins in Denver, Colorado: Psychedelic Science 2023. It would be difficult to find a more appropriate place for the fourth edition of the event, which should bring together more than 10,000 people.

The state in the American West is not as pioneering as Oregon, where service centers this year begin offering legal sessions with Psilocybe mushrooms. Colorado is still working on its regulation, which in some respects goes further — and is already reaping results against the perception that psychedelics pose a risk to public safety and health.

Denver was the first US city to decriminalize psilocybin (the psychoactive compound of those fungi) by popular initiative. Dozens of other municipalities, counties and states are following suit. Oregon took the lead with a referendum in 2020, succeeded by Colorado in 2022.

The movement, similar to the one that enshrined medical marijuana, advances in the wake of scientific research results attesting to the potential of psychedelics to treat mental disorders. Depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and chemical dependency –including alcoholism– are among the most promising targets. Australia and Canada have already taken steps to facilitate therapeutic use.

In Oregon, the new law only allows mushrooms of the species psilocybe cubensis in registered centers. Legislation passed in Colorado provides for the subsequent inclusion of other psychedelic substances such as mescaline and ibogaine.

Before finalizing the norms to accredit facilitators, service centers, production and testing, however, Colorado already decriminalized last January 4 the possession and exchange of psychedelics psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (the DMT of ayahuasca), ibogaine and mescaline.

Oregon has seen even more extensive decriminalization, involving drugs like cocaine and heroin, but only in small amounts. And the person will still be cited in the civil sphere and will receive a fine of US$ 100. Optionally, they can attend an official addiction treatment center. Colorado has none of that.

Another striking difference: in Oregon, to facilitate the passage of Measure 109, a clause was included authorizing counties and cities to vote its exclusion from the state regulation. In Colorado, Proposition 122 closed that avenue of escape.

The great fear with liberalization is that it will bring increased consumption, dependence and overdoses. Few people know that psychedelics such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin and mescaline have a low addictive potential and a very safe toxicological profile. And data from Colorado shows that the dreaded explosion did not occur.

Of course, psychedelics are not anodyne substances – among other effects, they can trigger psychotic breaks in people who are prone to them. Without supervision, in inappropriate environments or activities such as driving a car, they can indeed involve risks, but reports of serious accidents are rare.

The reassuring figures for Colorado were obtained by researcher Gregory Ferenstein, more specifically in Denver County and in other populous ones, such as El Paso. He has contacted law enforcement and prosecutors, but no one has indicated a significant change since January.

In official statistics, the first quarter of 2023 maintained the share of criminal incidents involving intoxication or possession of hallucinogens at around 2%. It is the same proportion seen in the first quarter of 2021, compared to all drug-related crimes.

With regard to driving under the influence of psychoactive compounds, episodes involving psychedelics accounted for 2.4% of the total (20 out of 820 incidents), against 3.9% (8 out of 205) in the atypical year of 2022, when normality resumed in the post-pandemic.

When hospitalizations for drug intoxication are considered, hallucinogens accounted for only 0.3% of incidents statewide in January. In the case of attendance for abuse of alcohol, a legal drug, the proportion was 54.1%. Stimulants accounted for 16.7%, opioids for 10.8%, and cannabis for 10.7%.

These are partial data and refer to a short period, certainly, but it is evident that, with such a disproportion between damage from psychedelics and alcohol, the explosion did not happen. It is not excluded that it will occur, but it seems likely that the perception of substances that alter consciousness will change, in light of the facts.

It has already been changing with data from clinical trials, such as those in phase 3 testing MDMA against post-traumatic stress disorder, spearheaded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. It is no coincidence that Maps, as it is known in English, is also the promoter of the PS2023 conference in Denver.

The mega-event will take place in an atmosphere of euphoria with the perspective of approval of this psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy by the FDA, the US Anvisa. And, also, apprehension with the predominance of the industrial-biomedical complex over healing processes practiced for centuries, perhaps millennia, by traditional peoples.

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Today is the last day to participate in the worldwide Global Psychedelic Survey (GPS). If you read English and have experience in this field, hurry up – the organizers aim to get at least 5,000 participants.

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The Chacruna Institute starts next Tuesday (June 6) the online course “The Science of Psychedelic Healing” (the science of psychedelic healing). In English, weekly classes last until August and cost US$ 450. Among the instructors are Brazilians Bia Labate, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes and Ligia Platero.

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NOTICE TO NAVIGATORS – Psychedelics are still experimental therapies and certainly do not constitute a panacea for all psychic disorders, nor should they be the object of self-medication. Speak with your therapist or doctor before venturing into the area.

On the tendency to legalize the therapeutic and adult use of psychedelics in the US, see the article “Cogumelos Livres” in the December 2022 issue of Piauí magazine.

To learn more about the history and new developments of science in this area, including in Brazil, look for my book “Psiconautas – Viagens com a Ciência Psychedelica Brasileira”.