On December 2, 2018, the Denver Green Party unanimously voted to endorse Decriminalize Denver’s ballot initiative effort to remove possession and personal cultivation of psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, from the list of arrestable offenses in our city. If this grassroots initiative passes on the May 2019 ballot, Denver will become the first city to pass such a measure, putting our city on the forefront of history. Decriminalizing Denver’s psilocybin effort encompasses six of the Green Party’s Ten Key Values: Grassroots Democracy, Social Justice, Ecological Wisdom, Non-Violence, Respect for Diversity, and Personal and Global responsibility.
It has been 50 years (October 24, 1968) since federal law banned psilocybin in the United States, perpetuating a long history of colonial oppression against the cultures of this continent’s indigenous people, who have utilized psilocybin in religious ceremonies for nearly two millennia. Recent scientific research confirms the wisdom of indigenous people’s use of psilocybin in relieving symptoms of severe depression and anxiety, addictions withdrawal, rebooting the brain after trauma, and increasing openness to experience. Therefore, allowing citizens to take personal responsibility for their mental health and to utilize natural treatments like psilocybin for mood disorders and addiction helps to end our culture’s toxic dependency on the pharmaceutical industry.
The historical use of psilocybin in spiritual practice and modern research on its psychological benefits also cultivates a spore of hope for US military veterans, who pay the price of decades of wars driven by capitalism’s insatiable need for more. Financed by big pharma and the industrial military complex, both major political parties in our country own the culture of violence that results in the self-violence of addiction and soldier suicide, which is more than twice of the civilian suicide rate. They also own the cultural violence created by the “War on Drugs” and generated by white supremacists who often prey on traumatized military members to join their ranks so they can use their training to execute racially motivated violence and domestic terror. The Denver Green Party applauds Decriminalize Denver for helping our city and culture to take a very small, but necessary step towards making indigenous land great again, by decolonizing from big pharma and pursuing the benefits of traditional natural treatments that used to be commonplace in the quest for peace.
The Denver Green Party asks registered Greens eligible to vote in Denver county to attend one of Decriminalize Denver’s petition signing events throughout December 2018, at Circus Collective (address and directions below). To volunteer to gather signatures, please email office@decriminalizedenver.org. To donate, click here.
Circus Collective
2041 Lawrence St, Denver, CO 80205
Every Friday from 10am to 7pm
December 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
Click here for directions
This law has no place in Colorado. Let’s get rid of it now.
It’s not a law Jillene, it’s an initiative to pass a law. If you are a registered voter in Denver County, you will get to vote in May 2019. Psilocybin mushrooms occur naturally, so it seems arrogant of people to criminalize something that occurs naturally/created by God (depending on your worldview). Also people with indigenous heritage have used psilocybin mushrooms prior to colonialization. Are you saying that people whose used psilocybin mushrooms aren’t entitled to their culture because of attempted genocide of settlers? Perhaps people who don’t like the culture of people indigenous to this continent don’t have a place in Colorado.
Hi, I am a local mycologist. would like to help your org w practical info to achieve your goals. I have created and already implemented a number of sustainable solutions here in Denver. If you contact me back, I will send you a copy of my latest unpublished paper “Why Not Mutualism?” how to participate in service to service mutualism to achieve sustainability. Like nature does every day. Last published work: The 2nd Enlightenment. Happened in Denver on the 500th anniversary of the first, Oct 31, 2017, according to my calculations.
Thanks, James Wieser
(818) 441-3684
FYI: the mushrooms you have a picture of in the article are probably Agrocybe precox complex.