--- title: Denver Residents Approve Magic Mushrooms Measure description: Unofficial final election results out of Denver suggest at least some Americans are ready to embrace legal magic mushrooms. canonical: https://time.com/5585635/denver-magic-mushrooms-vote/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-08T19:36:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T23:34:01.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Denver Approves Decriminalizing Psilocybin Mushrooms in Unofficial Results, as Public Support for Psychedelic Drug Research Grows og:description: The measure appeared to be defeated on the night of the ballot og:url: https://time.com/5585635/denver-magic-mushrooms-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e2690e5aa16cdfe/698949a109208f745a413ce7/magic-mushrooms-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Psychoactive dry magic mushrooms. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Denver Approves Decriminalizing Psilocybin Mushrooms in Unofficial Results, as Public Support for Psychedelic Drug Research Grows twitter:description: The measure appeared to be defeated on the night of the ballot twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e2690e5aa16cdfe/698949a109208f745a413ce7/magic-mushrooms-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Denver Approves Decriminalizing Psilocybin Mushrooms in Unofficial Results, as Public Support for Psychedelic Drug Research Grows > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c7a51c6-fe7a-4b8f-bf5c-3bfd146510d0&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics [Watch (HLS stream): Michael Pollan on the Healing Power of Psychedelics](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Z7yskoOT.m3u8) (4:20)  _Published 2018-05-16. Author Michael Pollan explored the therapeutic properties of psychedelics for his latest book, "How to Change Your Mind." His research includes firsthand experiences with the drugs._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:34 PM UTCPublished: May 8, 2019 7:36 PM UTC  Magic psilocybin mushrooms from above. Knolling flat lay background. Entheogen, alternative medicine. Magic psilocybin mushrooms from above. Knolling flat lay background. Entheogen, alternative medicine. Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 11:34 PM UTCPublished: May 8, 2019 7:36 PM UTC Psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, the psychoactive chemical in “magic mushrooms,” are inching closer to mainstream medical and research use — and unofficial final election results out of Denver suggest at least some Americans are ready to embrace legal measures that could eventually pave the way for that kind of study. A [measure on a May 7 Denver ballot](http://time.com/5584216/denver-voting-to-legalize-shrooms/) appears to have made the Colorado city the first in the nation to effectively decriminalize personal possession and consumption of psilocybin mushrooms, which can cause hallucinations and spiritual or emotional experiences. Though city lawmakers opposed the measure, Denver residents on Tuesday very narrowly voted it in. The measure appeared to be defeated on the night of the ballot. However, by Wednesday night [final, though unofficial, results](https://denvergov.org/electionresults#/results/20190507) show about 50.6% of voters approved the measure. Though the results are final, Ballotpedia cautions that the results [could still change](https://ballotpedia.org/Denver,%5FColorado,%5FInitiated%5FOrdinance%5F301,%5FPsilocybin%5FMushroom%5FInitiative%5F%28May%5F2019%29). A similar effort in California stalled before reaching the 2018 ballot, and organizers in Oregon are trying to get a magic mushroom measure on the ballot there in 2020\. The results in Denver suggest that voters might be warming to legalizing psychedelic drugs, just as [legalization of recreational and medicinal marijuana](http://time.com/5583289/illinois-governor-legalize-marijuana-plan/) has become increasingly common. Denver voters’ decision runs counter to some prior research. [A 2016 poll](https://www.vox.com/2016/3/15/11224500/marijuana-legalization-war-on-drugs-poll) from Vox and Morning Consult found that only 22% of surveyed registered voters supported decriminalizing magic mushrooms, for example. But at the same time, in [a 2017 poll](https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2017/06/23/americans-ready-embrace-psychedelic-therapy) from market-research firm YouGov, 53% of respondents said they support medical research into psychedelics such as mushrooms and[ ketamine](http://time.com/4826620/ketamine-depression-antidepressant/), and 63% said they would be personally open to incorporating them into medical treatment, if the medical community had deemed them safe. Researchers have been interested in medicinal uses of psilocybin for decades, but the movement has [gained significant traction](http://time.com/5278036/michael-pollan-psychedelic-drugs/) in recent years. Promising preliminary research suggests the hallucinogen could be used to treat mental health conditions including [depression](http://time.com/4586702/magic-mushrooms-psilocybin-depression/) and[ anxiety](http://time.com/4586333/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-depression/), perhaps [because it can activate](http://time.com/4338947/magic-mushrooms-for-depression/) and alter parts of the brain involved in regulating mood. Psilocybin mushrooms have even shown promise for helping with [smoking cessation](http://time.com/3399433/quit-smoking-psychedelic-drugs-acid-test/). The results are compelling enough, and the rates of abuse low enough, that in 2018, researchers from Johns Hopkins wrote [a paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390818302296?via%3Dihub) arguing that psilocybin should be reclassified from a schedule I drug to a schedule IV drug, as long as it clears clinical trials in the coming years. The Drug Enforcement Administration considers schedule I drugs, like heroin, to have high potential for abuse and no accepted medical purpose, while defining schedule IV drugs, like [sleeping pills](http://time.com/5584937/sleeping-pills-safe/), as those with a low risk of abuse or dependence. The Food and Drug Administration has approved some trials involving psilocybin, and in 2018, based on preliminary evidence, it [granted a “Breakthrough Therapy”](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compass-pathways-receives-fda-breakthrough-therapy-designation-for-psilocybin-therapy-for-treatment-resistant-depression-834088100.html) designation to Compass Pathways’ lab-made psilocybin for therapy for treatment-resistant depression. Rescheduling the drug would make it significantly easier for more researchers to study and potentially develop treatments that include it, since they would require fewer licenses and permissions to examine it in the lab. Marijuana’s[ current status as a schedule I drug](http://time.com/5430844/medical-marijuana-cancer-treatment/) has contributed to the dearth of research about its health effects, experts say, and researchers say the same is true of psychedelics. Even though Denver’s ballot measure appears to have passed, at this point it has no effect on federal drug scheduling. (Nor does it outright legalize recreational use of magic mushrooms in Denver — it would only have made psilocybin use and possession the lowest priority for law enforcement officials.) _Peter Allen Clark contributed to this report._ ## Transcript I guess the biggest misconception people have about psychedelics is that these are drugs that make you crazy. And we now have evidence that that does happen sometimes, but in many more cases, these are drugs that can make you sane, or more sane. [ MUSIC ] If you ask people about what psychedelics, or LSD, they're gonna think about the Timothy Leary, this flamboyant psychology professor. Studying psilocybin and LSD and then telling everybody they should take it. I'm very glad to be discredited, I don't want credibility. I want incredibility. [ LAUGH ] The drugs kind of escape laboratory and were embraced by the counter culture and proved to be very disruptive to society [ MUSIC ] So you had this full scale moral panic that eventually doomed the research but what people don't know is that that's 60s episode was really one small chapter in a much longer story. Psycho drugs are one kind of another have been used by different societies for thousands of years. If you compare mental health care with any other branch of medicine infectious disease, cardiology, oncology there have been very few achievements. Mental health treatment has not lengthened the human life span. So we need some new thinking, we need some new ideas and psychedelics may well be that new idea. There's a really exciting field of research underway, right now, looking at psychedelics. Especially psilocybin, the ingredient in magic mushrooms, to help people deal with mental illness of various kinds. Addiction, depression, obsession, and the fear and anxiety that surrounds a terminal diagnosis. And the feeling among the scientist is that these chemicals allow us to essentially reboot the brain. All those kind of deep grooves that lock us into patterns of both thought and behavior are dissolved and temporarily suspended in a way that allows us to break those patterns. We're now in a different world. The adults now, many of them have experience of psychedelics, they're not gonna react in such a panicky way, I don't think. Many of the people in charge of our institutions, probably regulators at the FDA, people at the American Psychiatric Association, they have personal experience of psychedelics. And they're, I think, gonna bring a more rational, Attitude toward them. I learned that there is a thriving underground of psychedelic therapists. These are serious professionals but they're doing something illegal. And I was able to find my way into this. Community and after interviewing several of them I found a couple people I felt comfortable enough to entrust my mind to. This isn't doctors giving you a pill and sending you out into the world. You are, for a period of four or five hours, in a room that's decorated like a kind of cozy den or study, you're lying down on a couch, you have eye shades on. And headphones, which are playing a very carefully curated playlist, to make you go inside, to have an internal experience. And you're with two guides at all times. Some people are put in touch with childhood trauma. Some people have encounters with death and I mean, it can be very dark. But with the help of the guides, you use that material and try to understand it. So after the session, you always come back the next day and have what's called a period of integration. Where the guides, who are trained therapists, help you interpret what happened and figure out ways to put it to good use in changing your life. My best journey was this fairly high dose [ INAUDIBLE ] journey. I had with a guide. What was stunning about it was I did have an experience of ego disillusion. I reached a point where myself kind of fell apart into these paper post its. That just got scattered into the wind. I saw myself. And I know that sounds weird. Who's the I that saw myself, but there is this split in consciousness that happens. But I saw myself scattered to the wind, but I was all right with it and I learned a really important lesson in that moment, which is that I'm not identical to my ego. 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