After Colorado voters decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms, a 15-member board will help craft the state’s rules for use, distribution and sale in treatment centers.
COLORADO, USA — Colorado likely won’t see its first regulated psilocybin “treatment center” for several years, but work to regulate them has just begun with the appointment of 15 experts to a natural medicine board.
Some of the board’s experts include therapists, paramedics, psychologists who have worked with veterans, sheriffs, and people who focus on disparities in access to health care.
Some of the board members are familiar with the use of natural medicines in indigenous cultures.
The Arizona-based medical doctor was also appointed to the board because she is the only federally licensed professional in the country allowed to conduct studies of psilocybin using whole mushrooms in controlled trials.
The board will advise the state on what requirements treatment centers and licensed facilitators must meet as people seek psilocybin therapy to help with mental health.
Treatment centers are expected to be places where people can use, distribute, buy and obtain a growing supply of psychedelic mushrooms.
The board is also expected to consider how to regulate psilocybin, since the psychedelic remains illegal under federal law as a Schedule I drug.
According to the Department of Regulatory Affairs, people who want to open and operate “treatment centers” should be able to start applying for licenses by September 2024.
The 15 board members are:
- William Dunn, NRP, FP-C, of Avon, to serve as a representative of emergency medical and first aid services
- Billy Winne, JD, Greenwood Village, to serve as representative of health insurance and health policy and public health, drug policy and harm reduction
- Dr. Sofia Chavez of Lakewood, to serve as a representative of traditional and indigenous uses and religious uses of natural medicine
- Dr. Bradley Conner of Fort Collins, to serve as representative of naturopathy, medicine and research
- Wendy Buckton-Andrade of Lamar, to serve as a representative of levels and disparities in access to health services among diverse communities
- Skippy Upton Mesirov of Aspen, to serve as the organization’s eligibility criteria representative
- Dr. Ernestine Gonzalez, MD, MS, of Colorado Springs, to serve as a representative on health insurance and health care policy, past criminal justice reform efforts in Colorado, and disparities in access to health care services among diverse communities
- Heather Lundy Nelson, M.D., of Denver, to serve as a representative of mental and behavioral health professionals and disparities in access to health care services among diverse communities
- Dr. Suzanne Sisley of Scottsdale, Arizona, to serve as representative for natural medicine mycology and cultivation
- Katina Banks, JD, of Denver, to serve as the organization’s eligibility criteria representative
- Ricardo Baca of Denver, to serve as a representative of traditional indigenous use and public health, drug policy and harm reduction
- Dr. Alyssa Hannum to serve as a representative of mental and behavioral health care facilities and issues facing veterans
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a doctor from Denver, to serve as a representative of traditional indigenous use and religious use
- Dr. Joshua Goodwin of Aurora, to serve as a representative of issues facing veterans
- Sheriff David Lucero of Pueblo, to serve as Colorado’s past criminal justice reform representative
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