Dear Stoner: When can we start buying mushrooms in dispensaries?
Felipe

Dear Felipe: Although Denver and Oakland recently decriminalized magic mushrooms — or their psychedelic compound, psilocybin — you and every other drug-doer out there should know that decriminalization and legalization are far from the same. Legalization denotes some set of legal rights and regulations, while decriminalization just means that law enforcement won’t be placing a priority on, or putting any finances toward, arresting and prosecuting you for a certain action, like possessing magic mushrooms. And only Denver — nowhere else in Colorado — has decriminalized mushrooms. It would take a ballot measure and approval of Colorado voters to legalize them like cannabis.

However, Denver’s decision to decriminalize cannabis in 2005 was an integral first step in the state’s approval of recreational pot, so you’re not entirely batshit for thinking this could happen. The Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked production of a psilocybin-based drug to treat depression, while a Denver coffee roaster announced plans to produce psilocybin-infused coffee if it can get FDA or state approval. Maybe you’ll have the last laugh in the next decade or so.


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