Colorado Expecting Psychedelic Therapy Centers to Open Next Year

Officials with the Colorado Department of Revenue recently released the final regulations for the state’s voter-approved medical psilocybin program; under the program, officials expect psychedelic therapy centers will be approved to open next year by late spring or early summer, The Aspen Times reports.

In 2022, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative calling for the legalization of psilocybin for medical and personal use; and in 2023, Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed the bill that lawmakers passed to implement the voter-approved reforms. Colorado’s psychedelics program will be the second such program in the U.S. after Oregon launched its medical psilocybin program earlier this year.

The final regulations include two sets of rules, the report said — one from the Department of Regulatory Agencies that covers the training and licensing of psychedelic therapy facilitators and one from the Department of Revenue that covers licensing procedures for the businesses participating in the program, including treatment centers, cultivators, manufacturers, and testing facilities.

Tasia Poinsatte, director of the Healing Advocacy Fund in Colorado — a nonprofit advocating for safe, affordable state-regulated access to psychedelic healing — said the program would be completely different from the state’s medical cannabis industry.

“This is not a dispensary model, and we’re not allowing any kind of retail sales. So nobody will be going in, purchasing psilocybin mushrooms, and then just taking them without this therapeutic and supervised structure. It really is a fundamentally different approach than what we’ve seen with marijuana, and it’s very much geared towards access for mental health.” —Tasia Poinsatte, director of the Healing Advocacy Fund in Colorado, via The Aspen Times

Researchers have found that psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA show a lot of potential against treatment-resistant cases of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Meanwhile, a study in June found that older adults who have used psychedelics tend to exhibit better cognitive function and fewer depressive symptoms.