In the near future, Cortez residents will simply be able to walk into a cozy space not unlike a therapist’s office and be administered a dose of psychedelic “magic mushrooms,” albeit, with the city’s calculated approval.
On Tuesday evening, the Cortez City Council invited the public to comment on how the city should handle licensing and regulations concerning the use of psychedelic “natural medicines,” as the state calls them, including trip-inducing magic mushrooms as the main player.
The opportunity for public comment was the latest ripple in a statewide roll out of supervised psychedelic mushroom usage. Local municipalities like Cortez must figure out their own approaches to oversight, with uncertainty drifting in the air like spores from a mushroom cap.
“We’re still one of the first in the state that is tackling this and we’re not gonna get it 100% right,” City Manager Drew Sanders said to the city council during a work session on June 17.
“We can take our best shot at it and as time goes on we can perfect it a little more later.”
In November 2022, Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that decriminalized psychedelic drugs. Soon after, in May of 2023, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB23-290 into law, regulating these psychoactive medicines further and making Colorado the second state to legalize the consumption of psychedelic mushrooms under personal use or through the administration of therapeutic “healing centers.”
Psychedelics have gained traction in recent years for their usefulness in therapeutic contexts, being applied to treat everything from PTSD to depression.
SB23-290 also established the Natural Medicine Division within the Colorado Dept. of Revenue. Not only are healing centers licensed under the division’s eye, but so too are other players considered natural medicine businesses, like those who grow or test the mushrooms.
Much is still up for Cortez to determine, however. During Tuesday night’s meeting, city officials openly navigated some confusion about how to properly oversee the new market for psychedelic-assisted therapies in the community.
Earlier this year, in February, the city council voted unanimously to halt the local approval process behind the opening of such new natural medicine businesses for six months, pushing the city to adopt its own regulations until the moratorium ceases on Aug 25.
In the interim period, a city council work session was held on June 17 and served as an opportunity to parse through the regulations Colorado has in place. Cortez public officials need to figure out what other rules the city wants to specify.
“Mostly what we want to do is keep it away from public spaces and children and make sure that it remains in a therapeutic, safe context,” Council member Robert Dobry said.
The height of a screen fenced around an outdoor mushroom ceremony, which hours businesses can be open, properly storing and disposing of psychedelic products, the quality of surveillance cameras in cultivation centers --- these were just some of the factors that the city council discussed during both the June work session and Tuesday night’s meeting.
Tuesday evening’s public comment session was an opportunity for more members of the public to offer their voices, even though only three members of the public appeared at the 6:30 p.m. meeting to ask questions.
Dr. Jennifer Gero, chief medical officer at Southwest Memorial Hospital, gave a brief presentation at the meeting’s start, helping to explain some of the science behind psilocybin, the psychoactive compound inside of magic mushrooms, and walk attendees through an overview of regulations in place.
Interim Police Chief Andy Brock also spoke, describing the numerous confusing instances of policing a once-illegal, but now regulated drug.
Beyond what happens inside natural medicine businesses, Coloradans over 21 can use psychedelic mushrooms on their own at home, Brock said.
People can’t sell mushrooms to one another, but technically they can sell the services of psychedelic-assisted therapy to each other, he said.
“I don’t know what they’re expecting law enforcement to do with that,” he said. “I’m not saying good or bad or indifferent. I’m just saying I don’t see any definite line for us.”
The state can penalize natural medicine businesses that fall out of compliance at a higher level, whereas Cortez law enforcement could cite a businesses for not following the city’s codes, said Patrick Coleman, attorney for Cortez.
That’s where city council’s new rules will enter.
But the bulk of the meeting was spent with city council figuring out what standards of compliance they’d draft.
Some areas of oversight drew in more concern than others.
For instance, Council member Dennis Spruell said that signage on natural medicine businesses should be regulated, so as not to convey the message, “’welcome to Cortez, your psilocybin capitol of the world,’” he said.
Similarly, Cortez doesn’t want these products --- reserved only for those 21 and older ---to get into the hands of children. To safeguard against that, Cortez is requiring that no products be manufactured into candy or chocolate.
Council members also said they wouldn’t want patients coming down from a psychedelic trip getting behind the wheel to drive home. After a psilocybin session at a healing center, patients should be accompanied home, say, by a designated driver, just in case the effects of the mushrooms still caused impairment, the council members said.
While proceeding cautiously, Cortez can only abide by the statewide decision to legalize psychedelic mushroom use.
Additional safety measures are left for the city to decide on.
“We want to do what’s right for the city of Cortez,” said Council member Spruell.
