Mushrooms in Colorado: Legalized Healing, Restricted Access

In November of 2022, voters passed Proposition 122, legalizing the supervised use of psychedelic mushrooms in Colorado for individuals over 21 at licensed, regulated facilities and decriminalizing the personal possession, growing, sharing and usage of the so-called ‘magic mushrooms.’ Starting this year, the state has begun the process of granting licenses to psychedelic mushroom therapy facilitators, leaving local businesses and residents to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of psychedelic therapy.

Among these businesses is Elevated Mushrooms, a Denver-based operation that sells gourmet culinary mushrooms, provides cultivation supplies and offers educational resources for those interested in growing psychedelic mushrooms under Proposition 122.

“Once you start learning how many ways mushrooms can help people, it’s kind of a rabbit hole,”  said Paul Bowerman, co-owner of Elevated Mushrooms. “We didn’t like the jobs we had. We wanted to do something that felt like we were helping people, and helping ourselves. So we decided to try and make a business out of it.”

Bowerman and Jeremiah Michael started Elevated Mushrooms after personal experiences with psychedelics led them to pursue mushroom cultivation. Initially, they began growing lion’s mane mushrooms in a home-built space, drawn to its reported wellness benefits.

“We’re not going to pursue a license,” Bowerman said.  “It’s too cost-prohibitive for us at the moment—the laws are very restrictive. We’d basically have to stop doing everything we are doing now and sell strictly to therapists.”

Bowerman and Michael are strong advocates for the healing powers of psychedelics. However, rather than applying for a state license, they have opted for a different approach that caters to Coloradans seeking personal and affordable access to psychedelics—something that Bowerman feels Proposition 122 fails to account for. 

“You’re going to have to go sit with a therapist for a couple hours, all the way up to six hours or more,” Bowerman said. “Some people want that. But me? That sounds like a nightmare.”

Elevated Mushrooms primarily sells culinary mushrooms, but they also offer grow kits and spores to help people start their psychedelic healing journeys. Because Colorado allows residents to grow their own mushrooms, this approach provides an alternative setting for psilocybin production and use outside of regulated therapy facilities.

Proposition 122 created a framework for psychedelic care, emphasizing safety and oversight. But the model limits regulated psilocybin use to licensed healing centers, where trained facilitators guide patients through sessions that can cost hundreds of dollars to attend.

Joshua Kappel, one of the co-authors of Proposition 122 and a founding partner of Vincente LLP, a drug law firm, acknowledged that accessibility to this healing is one of the biggest challenges Colorado is facing.

“Any sort of modality of care that’s not covered by insurance does create issues, you know, for those that can’t afford it out of pocket,” Kappel said. “I do think we’ll see group-facilitated sessions and more affordable access, and some healing centers are looking at sliding scale models so they can provide to those who are low-income. So there’s systems that people are proposing to make it more accessible, but ultimately, until insurance covers it, it’s going to be problematic.”

This limitation is exactly what Elevated Mushrooms seeks to counter. Bowerman emphasized that growing your own medicine is possible, and his business has been focusing on empowering individuals to engage with psychedelics on their own terms.

“Microdosing is probably the most beneficial thing that psychedelics provide,” Bowerman said. “And it doesn’t make any sense to have to go see a therapist just to get a microdose. People don’t have time for that. I microdose pretty regularly, and I think it’s hugely beneficial.”

For Elevated Mushrooms, the idea of a therapeutic monopoly on psilocybin feels out of step with the vision that many supporters had when they voted for the measure in 2022.

“A big thing with the initial movement to legalize was to make it accessible for people who don’t have money,” Bowerman said. “That’s not how it’s set up right now.”

Kappel understands those frustrations—and shares the belief in psilocybin’s potential. “There’s a lot of research out there on the benefits of psilocybin or these different natural medicines, and a lot of them are around treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and addiction,” Kappel said. 

“And there are different models, where people aren’t looking to use psychedelics to treat a diagnosed condition—they’re looking to use psychedelics to improve their lives overall,” Kappel continued. “So there’s a wellness aspect and also sort of a spiritual piece, where people are looking to explore consciousness.”

But Kappel also emphasized that safety needs to be at the center of any access model.

“Psilocybin is a powerful substance, and for individuals who have never used psilocybin before—you know, people need to use it safely,” he said. “A lot of times the harms that we’ve seen are around people who have never used before, and then they take a bunch by themselves. And so for those who want to experiment, you know, it’s strongly encouraged to experiment safely with the appropriate guides in place.”

Colorado’s framework, Kappel explained, is designed to prioritize that structured support. 

“This is a supervised care model, where individuals who want to use psilocybin in the regulated system can only do so under the supervision of a licensed facilitator or clinical facilitator, and it has to be at a particular location to meet certain requirements,” Kappel said. “So while something like cannabis is a retail sales model, psilocybin and natural medicine is a model of care.”

For growers such as Bowerman, a belief that psychedelic healing should be available to everyone defines their work. As the state continues to approve psychedelic healing licenses, the future of psilocybin access and effects for Coloradans remains uncertain. 

“We’re not therapists, and we don’t want to be therapists,” Bowerman said. “But we are trying to help people, and we see firsthand from our customers how much this healing helps them.”