Measure to decriminalize “magic mushrooms” fails in Denver

May 8, 2019

Voters in Denver have rejected a proposal that would have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms. A majority of votes counted showed opposition to Initiative 301, the Denver Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative, CBS Denver reports. The final count: 52 percent no to 48 percent yes.

Earlier this year the group supporting the measure gathered enough signatures for the question to be added to the local election ballot.

If it passed, the use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms by adults 21 and older in Denver would have been set at the lowest law enforcement priority in the city. Denver would have become the first municipality in the U.S. to decriminalize what some call “magic mushrooms.”

A total of 31 percent of registered voters participated in Denver’s municipal election this year. Of the more than 470,000 voters, just over 148,000 voters turned in ballots.

Campaign manager for the Denver Psilocybin Initiative Kevin Matthews poses for a portrait at an election watch party for the first bill in the nation that would decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms May 7, 2019. Getty

Jeff Hunt, Vice President of Public Policy at Colorado Christian University and Director the Centennial Institute, called the use of “magic mushrooms” a “serious problem,” and said “Denver is quickly becoming the illicit drug capital of the world,” CBS Denver reported ahead of the vote. Colorado voted in 2012 to become one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana.

“When you look at all the things that we’re dealing with, you have high-potency pot, you have proposals for supervised needle infection sights,” Hunt said. “The psychedelic mushroom folks are following the same playbook that marijuana did. They’re starting with decriminalization and then they’re going to move on to commercialization.”

Those who already use mushrooms for medical reasons were looking forward to the drug’s decriminalization. “I don’t think that people should be criminalized or looked upon differently because they are required to take something that can make them feel this much better,” one 54-year-old patient currently using psilocybin mushrooms told CBS Denver. The ballot measure didn’t differentiate between the medical and recreational use of mushrooms.