M held up the jarful of mushroom caps and stems, most of which showed the “blue bruising” unique to mushrooms that contain the natural hallucinogenic compound psilocybin. He showed me his stash at a Denver coffee shop. M is an IT director, he buys his psychedelic mushrooms on the darknet, and about once a year, he grinds three grams’ worth into powder, which he then puts into capsules.

If police had walked in while we were talking, M could theoretically have been cited for possession. But as of this month, that has become unlikely. On 7 May 2019, Denver voters passed Initiative 301, a ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin and direct local law enforcement to give psychedelic mushrooms the lowest arrest priority for adults 21 and older.

The fungi will still be an illicit, schedule 1 controlled substance under state and federal law, and selling it remains a felony in Denver. But the measure, which passed with a slim 50.6% vote majority, in effect told police to look the other way when it comes to possession, use and cultivation of psychedelic mushrooms in the Mile High City. It also instructed the city not to devote resources to psilocybin prosecutions and created a review panel to assess the impact of the new regulations.

Though modest in scope, the initiative attracted the kind of rapt attention that unprecedented drug policy votes often get.

No other US municipality had ever relaxed law enforcement standards specifically for psychedelic mushrooms. The measure was seen as both a barometer of shifting opinions nationally, and as a model to clone in other progressive locales. It also represented yet another move away from the “war on drugs” in a state already famous for being the first in the nation to approve recreational cannabis sales.

The closest thing to a new Amsterdam

Colorado legalized marijuana in 2012, seven years after Denver voted to decriminalize its possession in a ballot initiative strikingly similar in language to the psilocybin proposal. Be it the legacy of the west’s freedom-loving frontiersmen, the high tolerance of an ever-growing cannabis culture, or the same chill vibes that drew the likes of Jack Kerouac, John Denver and Hunter S Thompson, something about Colorado has made its capital city the closest thing America has to a new Amsterdam when it comes to liberal drug policies.

For M, who had his first child in 2016, the mushroom decriminalization effort came as a relief. “My biggest hang-up with ’shrooms was that if I got in trouble, that’s a problem for me being a father and still trying to be a pillar of my family. I feel more comfortable now doing what’s good for me and being sure I don’t jeopardizing caring for my son,” he said.

A woman blows smoke rings with marijuana smoke during a 4/20 Rally at the Civic Center in Denver in 2014. Photograph: Mark Leffingwell / Reuters/REUTERS

The Denver district attorney’s office only pursued 11 psilocybin cases out of more than 9,200 drug crime prosecutions between 2016 and 2018, so the legal reform will be less impactful than the sense of ease it conveys to people like M who are intrigued with psilocybin, yet intimidated by its illegality.

Organizers told the Guardian they expect the number of “psychedelic constituents” to grow in Denver as more people take advantage of a burgeoning underground movement of therapists, doctors and other harm reduction professionals who offer guided hallucinogenic experiences that they say can help to treat depression, anxiety, addiction or post-traumatic stress.

M is a recreational user, yet he uses psychedelic mushrooms with a therapeutic intent.

“For me it’s just to push the reset button,” he explained, saying the mushrooms helped him focus on what he cares about. “Things in day-to-day life can get in the way of what you know is important, but coming out of that I have a bright and restored view of life,” he noted. “I really love that about it, and I hope more people get that same type of experience.”

Why Denver?

According to Mason Tvert, a marijuana rights activist who managed cannabis legalization campaigns in Colorado and other states, it’s ballot access more than anything else that makes states like Colorado and Oregon incubators for change.

“When you’re talking about ‘why Denver?’, it’s not just the libertarian streak or the young people, it’s also the fact that there’s a workable, feasible way to put something on the ballot,” said Tvert. “I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable.”

Citizen ballot initiatives are often rolled back or made difficult by legislatures in other states, Tvert added, while places like Florida or New York can be too large and expensive to succeed in without huge amounts of money.

Another factor the drug law liberalization advocates noticed during their campaigns was a public wariness towards the government’s position, which they associated with failed drug policies generally, and decades old misinformation regarding the harmful nature of substances now used to treat major ailments.

“Our victory is a clear signal to the rest of the country that it’s time to have a broader conversation about psilocybin,” said Kevin Matthews, the Initiative 301 campaign manager. “In many ways, too, we need to have a conversation about our drug policies overall.”

‘It was life-changing’

At its peak, the Initiative 301 campaign had 10 staff members and 50 volunteers canvassing Denver to tell people about the “breakthrough therapy” status psilocybin-assisted treatments had received from the US Food and Drug Administration in October 2018. The designation came after studies from Johns Hopkins, UCLA, New York University and other leading medical institutions that showed psychedelic mushrooms can alleviate treatment-resistant depression without the danger of physical dependency or lethal overdose.

“Coming forward with a really professional approach was important,” said Matthews. “We have a duty to rebrand psychedelics away from the stigma of the 60s and 70s. Education was key. A lot of people who were opposed changed their minds when we were able to talk face to face and explain that there’s a lot of potential benefits here. It had people at the very least, if they were opposed, get on the fence and do their own research.”

The path that led Matthews to lead “Decriminalize Denver” and the psilocybin initiative began, oddly enough, at West Point Military Academy. Matthews developed severe depression while there as a cadet. He received a medical discharge, but only felt more lost when he returned home to Denver without the sense of purpose he enjoyed as an aspiring army officer. He credits his first experience with psychedelic mushrooms on an afternoon in which he and three friends walked around the city, visited a park, and relaxed at a home with helping to pull him out of his sorrow.

Late ballots tipped the scale in favor of Initiative 301. Photograph: Dan Hernandez

Matthews cautioned that it was extremely important to be careful. He urged people with a genetic predisposition for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, or those suffering from major depression, to talk to a doctor and examine the resources available for a guided experience rather than experimenting at home or alone.

“But what might look like a recreational experience from someone on the outside looking in can be a very therapeutic and transformative experience for the person under the influence,” he said. “For me, it was life-changing.”

‘Right out of the marijuana playbook’

Denver’s mayor, Michael B Hancock, and district attorney, Beth McCann, were among the few elected officials to come out against Initiative 301. Each expressed concerns about drugged-driving and potential damage to the city’s reputation should it become known as a haven for recreational drug use.

Some residents also worry the measure will bring in undesirable tourists and residents. Colorado has already experienced a boom in marijuana tourism since it legalized recreational cannabis. And anecdotally, Denverites speculate that a surge of new residents stoked to grow and smoke pot without fear of arrest is behind increased home and rental prices.

After the mushroom vote, the mayor promised to honor the result, and a spokesperson for the DA told the Guardian that while psilocybin charges were already a minuscule part of their work, McCann wanted it known that she “fundamentally believes that the war on drugs resulted in too many people being incarcerated for drug charges, and she supports treatment and diversion to incarceration”.

One community leader less keen to move on from the “war on drugs” is Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute, a conservative thinktank based at Colorado Christian University, in suburban Denver. He said the conservative community is dumbfounded by what’s happening to the city. “I grew up here,” Hunt added. “This was a wonderful town to raise a family. Now you’re dealing with a reputation as the place to come if you want to use illicit drugs, and that’s unfair. We’re ultimately going in the wrong direction.”

Hunt fears that hallucinogenic mushrooms are on the path to recreational use, noting that the Initiative 301 campaign was “right out of the marijuana” playbook with its emphasis on positive medical studies, individuals with mental health needs, and popular support for criminal justice reform. He predicts that with law enforcement’s acquiescence, more people will experiment with psychedelic mushrooms, and that future campaigns will seek to bring psychedelics out of the shadows and into the taxable commercial sphere.

“We’re reliving big tobacco all over again by creating companies that have a financial incentive to get as many people using their products as possible,” Hunt said of the recreational drug movement. “We’re going to deal with these issues for a generation, just like we’re dealing with the impact of tobacco and opioids … Everyone said this is a grand experiment, and I agree with that, unfortunately I think it’s the wrong thing to be experimenting with.”

A strange trip

On the night of the vote in Denver, “psychonauts” like Matthews felt like they were experiencing a bad trip. The initiative trailed by several percentage points and it wasn’t until the following afternoon (at exactly 4.20pm, Twitter users noticed) that election results were made official. The late ballots tipped the scale in Initiative 301’s favor by 2,291 votes. Upon hearing the news, Matthews screamed so joyously loud his neighbors’ dogs barked, and he guessed that people in the neighborhood wondered what he was on.

Campaigning in a city like Denver is one thing; organizing and funding a statewide initiative is a much tougher haul, Matthews concedes. Yet that’s what proper legalization would require.

A psilocybin measure in California failed to make the ballot in 2018, so its proponents are seeking legislative assistance to try again in 2020. In Oregon, meanwhile, activists have language approved for a vote next year to reduce criminal penalties and create a regulatory regime for “guided psilocybin services”. If it is successful, the state will be first to legalize “magic” mushrooms for medicinal purposes.