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Denver will play host to its second legal psychedelics conference in three months when PsyCon hits town the weekend of Friday, September 29.
In late June, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) hosted Psychedelic Science at the Colorado Convention Center, attracting around 12,000 people to listen to a long list of big names talk about the emerging psychedelics industry. Although PysCon is anticipating about one-fourth of the attendance and won’t have Aaron Rodgers, Paul Stamets, or Jared Polis and Rick Perry speaking, PsyCon co-founder Chad Sloan believes a smaller expo will enable more meaningful conversation.
“We’re nowhere near as big as MAPS. We haven’t been around for thirty years like them, but we do know how to organize events,” Sloan says. “With bigger shows, it’s harder to network. There are so many speakers, shows, people and vendors. This is intimate, so you’ll get more quality information and contacts walking out of our show.”
Sloan and his partners run the nationally touring Lucky Leaf Hemp Expo, and he believes there’s similar potential for legal psychedelics shows as states enact reform. In November 2022, Colorado voters approved Proposition 122, or the Natural Medicine Health Act, legalizing medical psilocybin use while also decriminalizing the personal use and cultivation of psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline. During the 2023 session, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill creating legal and regulatory frameworks for clinical psilocybin and personal rights surrounding the substances decriminalized by Prop 122.
Although this state was early to the party, Colorado isn’t alone in psychedelic reform.
This year, Nevada and Washington lawmakers approved bills creating psilocybin research and therapeutic access programs, and Hawaii passed a measure that establishes an advisory council to look into potential federal and state psychedelic laws. Georgia, Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania legislatures are also considering psychedelic bills, and Massachusetts could see one filed soon. Earlier this month, the California Legislature passed a bill similar to Colorado’s that would decriminalize certain psychedelics and create a pathway toward regulated clinical use.
PsyCon recently held an expo in Oregon, the first state to legalize medical psilocybin. Psilocybin mushroom cultivations and clinics are already licensed and operating in Oregon, but Sloan views Colorado as the current epicenter of psychedelic entrepreneurship.
“People don’t want to travel to Portland like they do Denver. Our show in Denver is going to be way busier,” he says. “Mushrooms won’t be the only prime topic here. With psychedelics, it’s not like cannabis. There are so many different psychedelics to discuss, like ketamine, ibogaine, psilocybin and DMT. It’s more diverse here.”
The two-day conference will include panel discussions covering Colorado’s new psychedelics laws, as well as talks about ibogaine’s potential to treat addiction and how psychedelics can impact sex lives. Sloan is particularly excited to hear Chief Haru Kuntanawa, a leader of the Kuntanawa tribe in Brazil, discuss his people’s sacred use of Ayahuasca for spiritual and healing purposes. A program on mushroom chocolate manufacturing and and a crash course in legal psychedelics are also on the top of his list, he says.
Unlike the MAPS Psychedelic Science event, which cost $800 and up to attend, admission to PsyCon runs around $200, with a discount code offering 25 percent off featured prominently on the website’s homepage. According to Sloan, the discount will remain through next week.
PsyCon plans to return to the Colorado Convention Center around the same time next year, shortly after Colorado is expected to start issuing psilocybin production and facilitation licenses.
