Westword Natural Medicine Panel Dives Into Emerging Psychedelics in Colorado

What a rush! Just over a decade after Colorado took the first step into recreational cannabis sales, we're going through a similar trip with psychedelics that has raised numerous burning questions about the future of this field.

For our third members-only event, Westword hosted an evening exploring Colorado's new psychedelics space at the Mercury Cafe on April 11. An eager crowd of around 100 people gathered at the legendary venue for a conversation about the ramifications of Proposition 122, which was approved by Colorado voters in November 2022 and decriminalized psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline, while also legalizing medical psilocybin.

After Editor-in-Chief Patricia Calhoun offered a quick overview of Westword's membership program, she introduced Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés Reyés, a psychoanalyst and post-trauma recovery specialist who's the author of Women Who Run With the Wolves and a member of Governor Jared Polis's Natural Medicine Advisory Board. As a young healer/helper and student of curanderismo, she learned about the power of plants during her immersion in twelve different Indigenous groups in Mezo and South America, and she helped petition the Library of Congress and the International Psychoanalytical Association to begin to categorize "healing ways belonging to the people" in respectful terms, calling them "medicine" and other respectful and accurate designations.

Her introductory history lesson was followed by a lively panel discussion and Q&A led by Westword News Editor Thomas Mitchell (also our Cannabis & Psychedelics Editor), with psychedelics entrepreneur Jonathan Cherkoss, Ant Life owner Jacob Lemanski, curandera Ana Medina and Barine Majewska, an attorney with Vicente LLP, one of the country's leading cannabis and psychedelics law firms, who's a member of its Psychedelics and Emerging Therapies Practice Group.

“I think we are in an incredibly interesting but sensitive space in Colorado, as we as a community try to determine what is the healthiest and sanest way to integrate these plant medicines into our modern life and culture and then try to write those guidelines into law," says Majewska. "I hope everyone continues to talk to each other about what they know about these medicines in an open, honest and collaborative way so we can slowly determine the best way forward.”

Lemanski has hosted dozens of cannabis and psychedelic-centric events since opening Ant Life in 2022. This all came after he spent nearly 1,000 days traveling the world on a bicycle — and trying a few naturally growing mushrooms along the way. "From free mushroom exchanges to ketamine clinics, I see interest in psychedelics expanding with greater access," he offers. "I'm glad to provide Ant Life as a safe, beautiful space to enhance the psychedelic experience and support Denver's growing psychedelic community."

Last November, Cherkoss helped organize Colorado's first public magic mushroom growing competition; he's currently co-organizing the Denver Shroom Fest, set for June 9. "Colorado's decriminalization of DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and psilocybin provides people the ability to say what the psychedelic community means to them," he says. "There is no 'right' way to do psychedelics."

Medina, an elder to her community who's studied practices such as sound healing, reiki and shadow work, as well as natural plant medicines, offers a cautionary takeaway: "The sacred medicine, rituals and ceremonies of Indigenous cultures are not for sale. Indigenous people have graciously shared their medicines with us in recognition that Westerners need profound healing despite the risks they have faced from our own laws that persecute and criminalize them for healing with their own medicines. This exchange does not give us a 'right' or ownership to plant medicines, nor the right to represent or speak for Native communities or their medicines.

"Medicines are not here to optimize capitalism."

Thank you to all our members who support our independent journalism and continued psychedelics coverage. Westword will host the next members-only event with Best of Denver-winning rock band Ipecac at 3 p.m. Friday, May 24, at the Westword office.

Become a member to join us that day. Already a member? Watch your inbox for the RSVP.