The 2025 Psychedelic Science conference and trade show in Denver started with a bang — or perhaps with the creaking sound of jail cells opening — on Wednesday when Gov. Jared Polis declared that he will pardon Coloradans with past state convictions for possession of psilocybin and psilocin, the naturally occurring chemicals in magic mushrooms.
Polis made a similar sweeping pardon after recreational cannabis was legalized a decade-plus ago. With the 2022 passage of Colorado Proposition 122: Natural Medicine Health Act, Colorado voters decriminalized the possession and use of certain psychedelic plants and fungi and set the stage for new pardons and the establishment of a new industry centered — for now, at least — on the use of psychedelic drugs in research, spiritual and therapeutic settings.
Hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the Psychedelic Science conference, which is expected to draw thousands of attendees to the Colorado Convention Center this week, is a celebration of that industry and its move into the mainstream.
The psychedelic sector in Colorado is a “fully functioning industry,” Polis said. Legalization and regulation of certain natural medicines is “really standing up a whole new area (of commerce) that used to exist in the black market or underground.”
Colorado has more than 100 licensed psychedelic-assisted therapy facilitators and several healing centers and product manufacturing facilities already in operation, with institutions such as the University of Colorado’s CU Denver Center for Psychedelic Research and Boulder’s Naropa University are leading the charge from an academic and professional training standpoint
“We’re excited about the potential around the use of psychedelics when it comes to mental health, when it comes to treating addiction,” Polis said. “There’s a lot of promise, but we also know it’s been very hard to study this adequately when it’s been treated as illegal in the United States. We’re proud that with our new regulatory system, (Colorado) can now be in the forefront of research and policy for natural medicine to make sure that we’re best positioned to take advantage of any healing or therapy properties that people could potentially benefit from.”
Polis’ pardons — which, because the vast majority of shroom possession charges have been prosecuted on the local level, will wipe the records of only a handful of state convicts — are meant to “truly acknowledge the error in public policy … and help them move on with their lives,” he said.
The governor encouraged municipal politicians to follow the state’s example. “If you live in Denver, if you live in Boulder, let your mayors and city council members know” that support exists for similar pardons on the local level, he said.
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
The 2025 Psychedelic Science conference and trade show in Denver is organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. (Lucas High/BizWest) Read More Details
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