Colorado is preparing to launch its legal mushroom program amidst a bevy of concerns from both critics and advocates. Aspiring participants in the groundbreaking program, which will begin next year, have expressed worries that proposed licensing fees will be economically challenging, making it difficult for businesses to stay afloat. Opponents, on the other hand, want the laws to be further tightened, likening the existing program to a “cynical charade” that uses therapy to promote potentially harmful recreational drug use.
Colorado voters passed Prop 122 in 2022, which allows the supervised use of psychedelic mushrooms in licensed facilities by adults over 21 years old, as well as decriminalizes natural psychedelics such as psilocybin, mescaline, and DMT. The law also permits the state to expand the types of substances that can be used in licensed facilities to include other plant-based psychedelics starting in 2026. Following a series of listening sessions from 2023-2024, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Natural Medicine Division, a new government division set up to implement Prop. 122, will begin to accept license applications on December 31.
READ: Where Did Western Psychedelic Therapy Come From, Exactly?
Colorado’s pioneering psychedelics program is a huge work in progress that will be closely watched as a national model for the future. The state is the second in the United States to implement such a framework, two years after Oregon rolled out its first psilocybin service center. Oregonian psilocybin businesses are already suffering, with at least one service center shuttering within six months of opening. Business owners cited expensive state licenses and other sky-high fees, which reduced customer demand, as one of the main reasons why the market is struggling.
During one of the listening sessions held by Colorado’s Natural Medicine Division, aspiring business owners and facilitators expressed similar worries. “I just reviewed the estimate cost spreadsheet, and it’s overwhelming,” said attendee Erica Messinger. “Looking at it from a rural health equity standpoint, and trying to make this affordable for the people who need it the most… it’s hard to know how to turn a profit.”
DoubleBlind reached out to the Natural Medicine Division for comment on these concerns. “The fees are final. We are required by law to cover the direct and indirect costs of regulating the industry as prescribed by law, and to revisit fees annually,” said Heather Draper, Communications Manager of the Natural Medicine Division. “We purposely set fees lower for 2025 (the first year) to try to eliminate barriers to entry and encourage participation in the regulated program. If there is more participation in the program than we currently project, there could be a decrease in fees in subsequent years.”
Meanwhile, Colorado faces concerns from watchdog groups fighting for tighter regulations of psychedelics. “Making it available in forms that are appealing to children is our major issue,” Henny Lasley, executive director of One Chance to Grow Up, told The Denver Gazette. “If it’s billed as a medicine, make it available in capsule form, not in gummies or chocolate.”
The newspaper’s editorial board also argued that psychedelics should be strictly regulated and prescribed only by medical professionals, rather than by facilitators at state-licensed “healing centers” that will open under the new law. The board called Prop. 122 a “farce” and a “mockery of medical science,” likening it more to recreational drug use than therapy for mental health issues.
