Facing uncertainty, we’re looking to alternative substances for mental health solutions.

The District of Columbia decriminalized magic mushrooms along with other psychedelics like peyote and ayahuasca with the passage of Initiative 81, the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act of 2020. In 2019, Denver pioneered a similar decriminalization policy for shrooms.

Public opinion on the nature of drugs has changed though. Two thirds of Americans now support marijuana legalization and a majority of Americans now see addiction as a medical issue. It’s hard not to presume this shift tracks with more than a third of Americans knowing someone addicted to heroine or prescription opiates. One in ten have had a relative or close friend die from an opiate overdose.