After Colorado voters decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms, the 15-member board of directors will help craft the state’s rules for use, distribution, and sale in treatment centers.
COLORADO, USA – Colorado probably won’t see a regulated psilocybin “healing center” in two years, but the work on organizing it has just begun with the hiring of 15 experts in Natural Medicine Council.
some of the Board experts They include therapists, paramedics, and 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 by Aboriginal cultures.
An Arizona-based physician was also named to the board because she is the only federally licensed professional in the country permitted to conduct psilocybin studies using whole mushrooms during controlled trials.
The Board will advise the state on the requirements that licensed recovery centers and facilitators must meet as people seek treatment with psilocybin to aid mental health.
Healing centers are expected to be places where people can use, distribute, purchase, and obtain growing supplies of psychedelic mushrooms.
The board is also expected to consider how to regulate psilocybin, as the drug is still illegal under federal law as a Schedule I drug.
According to the Department of Regulatory Affairs, people seeking to open and operate “treatment centers” must be able to begin filing licensing applications by September 2024.
The fifteen members of the Board of Directors are:
- William Dunn, NRP, FP-C, of Avon, to act as a representative for services and emergency medical services provided by first responders
- Billy Wayne, JD, of Greenwood Village, to serve as representative for Medicare Insurance, Medicare Policy, Public Health, Drug Policy, and Harm Reduction
- Sophia Chavez, PhD, of Lakewood, to serve as representative of traditional, indigenous, and religious use of natural medicine
- Bradley Conner, MD, of Fort Collins, to serve as a naturopathic medicine, medicine, and research representative
- Wendy Buxton-Andrade of Lamar, to serve as representative of the levels and disparities in access to healthcare services among different communities
- Skippy Upton Mesirow of Aspen, to serve as representative of the organization’s permitted standards
- Ernestine Gonzalez, Ph.D., MA, MA, Colorado Springs, to serve as a representative on health care insurance and health care policy, Colorado’s past criminal justice reform efforts, and disparities in access to health care services between different communities
- Heather Lundy Nelson, MA, of Denver, to serve as representative of mental health and behavioral health service providers and the disparities in access to health care services between different communities
- Dr. Susan Sisley of Scottsdale, AZ, to be representative of Mycology and Natural Medicine Agriculture
- Katina Banks, JD, of Denver, to serve as representative of the organization’s permitted standards
- Ricardo Baca of Denver, to serve as a representative on Indigenous traditional use, public health, drug policy, and harm reduction
- Dr. Alyssa Hannum to be a representative of mental and behavioral health service providers and issues facing veterans
- Clarissa Pincula Estes, Ph.D., of Denver, to serve as representative of traditional Aboriginal and religious use
- Joshua Goodwin, Ph.D., of Aurora, to serve as a representative for issues facing veterans
- Sheriff David Lucero of Pueblo, to serve as a representative for ex-Criminal Justice Reform in Colorado
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