For the first time, a Colorado patient has taken a legal supervised dose of psilocybin under the state’s natural medicine program. That’s according to the The Center Origin, which in April became the state’s first licensed healing center as part of a buildout of the voter-approved system that was completed last month.
“Big news,” the facility’s CEO and founder, Elizabeth Cooke, said on social media on Sunday. “Last week, we held our very first psilocybin session for psychedelic-assisted healing.”
“A milestone moment is here and a new chapter in healing has begun!” she wrote. “This marks the beginning of our work offering safe, intentional, and transformative psychedelic-assisted healing experiences to those seeking deeper growth and restoration.”
Colorado regulators last month certified the first testing laboratory for the natural medicine program, putting the final piece of the state’s psychedelic infrastructure in place.
Following that step, Gov. Jared Polis (D) announced that the second-in-the-nation state psychedelics program was “fully launched for operations.”
Cooke had previously announced on Friday that psilocybin, “grown in a state-regulated facility, officially arrived” at her healing center the week before.
Colorado’s voter-approved program allows licensed facilitators to conduct therapeutic sessions using psilocybin, a main active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms.
As of last week, regulators at the Department of Revenue’s Natural Medicine Division had approved two standard and six microbusiness healing center licenses, three standard cultivation licenses, two product manufacturing licenses and one testing license.
Advocates for psychedelic reform cheered the launch of psilocybin sessions in Colorado
Tasia Poinsatte, Colorado director for the nonprofit Healing Advocacy Fund, called the news “an incredible milestone—not just for our state, but for the meany people who have been waiting and hoping for a new option to help them heal.”
“Coloradans are now sitting down with licensed facilitators in safe, supportive environments and beginning their healing journeys with psilocybin,” she said in a statement on Monday. “This moment is the culmination of thoughtful, community-driven policymaking and years of research showing that psychedelic therapies can offer real relief where other treatments have failed.”
Polis signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for psychedelics in 2023, following voters’ passage of the legalization law the year before.
Oregon voters previously legalized therapeutic psilocybin in 2020.
Poinsatte told Marijuana Moment last month that so far the program had “been rolled out very thoughtfully, very carefully.”
Compared to Oregon’s law, she said in an interview, Colorado’s allows “greater integration with other forms of healthcare,” pointing, for example, to the ability of providers such as therapists to offer in-office administration of psilocybin rather than needing to secure and operate a standalone psychedelic clinic.
“We’ve done a lot of advocacy to try to create more affordable options,” she explained, “and part of that is just flexibility of options.”
Earlier this month, meanwhile, Polis signed into law a separate bill to facilitate pardons for low-level psychedelics possession convictions, which he said represents another step “towards a fairer future.”
The bill allows for low-level “possession of psilocybin, ibogaine, and DMT, which is now legal today, to be removed from criminal records,” the governor said.
The newly enacted legislation from Sen. Matt Ball (D) and Rep. Lisa Feret (D) authorizes governors to grant clemency to people with convictions for low-level possession of substances such as psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT that have since been legalized for adults under a voter-approved ballot initiative in 2022.
It will also require the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Department of Revenue (DOR) and Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to “collect information and data related to the use of natural medicine and natural medicine products.”
Earlier this session, Polis also signed into law a bill that would allow a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal government authorizes its use.
While Colorado already legalized psilocybin and several other psychedelics for adults 21 and older through the voter-approved ballot initiative, the newly enacted reform will make it so drugs containing an isolated crystalized version synthesized from psilocybin can become available under physician prescription.
Separately in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products died following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the legislation.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia/Mushroom Observer.
For the first time, a Colorado patient has taken a legal supervised dose of psilocybin under the state’s natural medicine program. That’s according to the The Center Origin, which in April became the state’s first licensed healing center as part of a buildout of the voter-approved system that was completed last month. “Big news,” the Read More
