Part 1: My Reflection on Proposition 122 - Colorado's controversial Natural Medicine Health Act

Colorado is all over the news again. Colorado's ballots have arrived this week and we all are voting on Proposition 122 whether to legalize certain psychedelic compounds and create a regulatory framework through licensed "healing" centers. This "progressive" legislation allows ANYONE to come to Colorado to open up to 5 healing centers and local municipalities and cities cannot ban them. Doesn't feel Colorado-centered at all. There is a decriminalization component for these compounds but for me it a breadcrumb. The Natural Medicine Colorado campaign also points and praises "social justice sidebars" however just like in a bowling alley, these "sidebars" can go up and come down. This measure in highly complex and it goes beyond just reading the Colorado Blue Book. I encourage you to sread it's 18-pages and ask if Colorado is ready for this? Who is really going to benefit from creating a new regulated licensing model around yet another Federally Scheduled 1 Controlled Substance that still doesn't not have true FDA-approval for medicine?

In all my years of being a Denver advocate and community organizer, I have never witnessed a campaign this toxic and fracturing to an established grassroots community. I've witnessed people of color and marginalized folks dismissed, their concerns ignored and women tokenized and harassed. I believe Colorado can do better than the Natural Medicine Health Act. This is not the end all be all in psychedelic policy and reform.

You are invited to join me this Thursday Oct. 27th 4-6 pm MT. I'm hosting a Community Forum on Zoom, Unpacking Proposition 122: http://bit.ly/3guSXAk

After being in the community discussion for an entire year around the Natural Medicine Health Act, I am voting NO on Proposition 122 for many reasons. My list is long:

1. We are rushing this. I hear the Natural Medicine Health Act (NMHA) is the most progressive legislation we've ever seen, but for who? Who really progresses and benefits should this pass? If it's the already rich and wealthy.. then for me, its a no thank you. I ask why are we prioritizing out-of-state interests over Coloradans interests and needs of our own communities? Proposition 122 prioritizes a regulated framework not decriminalization. Personal use and possession in a breadcrumb and not the real intention behind Prop 122.

2. Proposition 122 would open up the floodgates to anyone who can afford to open up to 5 licensed healing centers. Colorado's local municipalities and cities cannot ban them. This goes against Colorado's home rule. I also think about the larger societal and environmental impacts this may have for the most marginalized communities. The cost of living will likely increase just like when Colorado was the first to legalize cannabis.. anyone else remember that? Is Colorado ready for rising rent costs due to another boom of growth?

3. Out-of-state millions of funding and influence is pushing for this legislation. 3 Million+ in funding from mostly anonymous donors through a DC-based, New Approach PAC (they have their hands in everything, NM, WA etc). Colorado politics put out a recent article about "dark money" -- this is concerning. The out-of-state power and privilege I've witnessed in community discussions from members of the Natural Medicine Colorado campaign is alarming and we haven't even voted yet. I've attended a Chacruna "community" event hosted in Denver and witnessed people of color denied to speak. This also happened to me after the host of the event Bia asked if anyone else wanted to speak. I asked for 10 seconds at the end and was denied. It felt like a sickening, power pro-NMHA rally, clapping for their top funder, CEO of the beloved Bronner soap company, while two people of color among a handful of BIPOC folks in attendance, were treated with such disrespect.

4. Colorado was the first state to fully legalized cannabis 10 years ago and social equity was an afterthought. The disparity in ownership race and gender in Colorado is still alarming and there's a lack of anything happening to address and fix this. 10 years later it's all Corporate, cannabis culture fading, medical cannabis is dwindling/dying and social equity applicants are struggling to fit in a system that wasn't built with them in mind in the first place. There are no real incentives for Corporate Social Responsibility in Colorado cannabis and more could be done here, my opinion. Historically speaking, I am skeptical that policy drafted by such lawyers behind closed doors without People of Color, Indigenous leaders and diverse perspectives outside of cannabis will encompass true social equity, diversity and inclusion.

5. Know that feedback and input from community at-large happened after the first drafts of NMHA was already submitted to the state. There were a few weeks for input and feedback over the holiday break and local community advocates like myself have been in a pressure cooker reacting to the campaign's sense of urgency, power-hoarding, belief in one right way, fear that Colorado's mental health is ranked 50th in the nation -- all and more that stem from supremacy culture norms. I even had one of the co-proponents literally say these words to be about the NMHA. He said, "this is not about social equity" after I had told him that I had just done an intensive social justice, anti-racism facilitator workshop last fall.

Side note: This was a huge reason why I decided to be a co-proponent behind Initiative 61, a Colorado grassroots ballot initiative created to counter the NMHA as showing that not all of Colorado's psychedelic community was on board and aligned with the NMHA. (I'll be sharing more later on what it was like to run a Colorado ballot initiative. I have insight and knowledge that we CAN create statewide change through the ballot process. Understand that was an impossible feat and hard to community organize post the pandemic. Who can volunteer their time in 2022 post-Covid that changed everyone's lives? Know that 2.8 Million bought their way on the Colorado ballot this year.)

6. There are community orgs like SPORE and even a Native Coalition in opposition to Proposition 122; here's a recent article. I stand with Indigenous voices and wisdom on this! I ask folks to open their minds and hearts. No one has it all figured out. Remember that we wouldn't psilocybin mushrooms if it wasn't for Maria Sabina. If you don't know who she is, please do your research. Can Colorado and the nation refrain from colonizing sacred Indigenous medicines (psilocybin, ibogaine, mescaline, and DMT) for profit and control?!

7. There's also this recent article in DoubleBlind magazine that has links to other article I've been mentioned in. I have huge concerns with campaign steering members publicly stating that if Prop 122 passes that "people can grow up to 30 lbs of mushrooms and not be arrested or served with fees and fines." I would like please for someone with a criminal justice/ attorney background to fact check this statement. I work in record sealing work in Colorado, what's missing here is that if you go to Court, likely that means a person was were arrested. Also what about "possession with the intent to distribute" charges? This happens even now in cannabis and the fees are enormous like $4,000+. I do not believe decriminalization of personal use and possession is enough especially when there's an industry created by licensing. (Haven't we learned this through cannabis?) This creates a gray/vague area that allows for police discretion to what is "necessary". We know people of color are more likely to more policed/arrested just like even after cannabis legalized in Colorado. I do not believe that decriminalization of personal use, possession, cultivation and sharing as "necessary" protects the very people, Indigenous people, that are already using these medicines safely and have been for thousands of years. It doesn't not protect traditional and spiritual use.

8. If anyone is promising new innovative solutions for Colorado's mental health issues, than this therapy should be affordable and accessible for all people. In Oregon under Measure 109, psilocybin therapy is not affordable for people in low income communities. That's a huge lesson here. We have co-proponents talking about services costing up to $3,000 to experience psilocybin-- who's able to afford this? While there are efforts to collect data and lofty promises that this may be covered under Medicare-- I think that's a stretch and provides false hope right now. Questions and answers about impacts and costs due to 280E Federal tax code are not clear either. Due to psilocybin mushrooms being a Federal Controlled Substance 1, we know 280E federal tax code will apply and the VA won't be paying for psilocybin therapy for Colorado's veterans-- a big point for the Natural Medicine Campaign. Anyone seeing the aggressive veterans ads on YouTube? I condone tokenizing veterans for ANY political agenda. We saw this with medical cannabis campaigning for PTSD for veterans and even after Colorado expanded medical cannabis to include PTSD, the VA still does not pay for medical cannabis in Colorado.

I can go on but I'll stop for now. It's Sunday and I should be outside enjoying the fall weather. I wish anyone still reading this a good afternoon and I hope this is helpful in providing additional perspective on something so complex. There are valid, logical and intuitive reasons while why some of Colorado's most vocal psychedelic community advocates and leaders will be voting NO on Proposition 122.

I believe we can do better than the NMHA. Coloradans deserve better and so does this sacred medicine.