🫠 Psychonaut POV

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When Josh Kappel first got involved in psychedelic policy, even he thought reform was pipe dream. But he accepted the challenge anyway. Not long after, Denver made history as the first city in the US to decriminalize psilocybin, and Josh has been riding the edge ever since.

We asked Josh what we should know about Colorado’s natural medicine program, how facilitators and entrepreneurs can get ready for the regulated market, and what it’ll take to make safe microdosing products available to the masses.

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Can you tell us about your journey into psychedelic law?

My story with psychedelics started in my formative years. I was coming off a very religious upbringing and had a very impactful psilocybin experience out in nature. From that experience, a lot of the dogma around organized religion shifted, and my view on the world really coalesced around more of a perennial view on spirituality—how different spiritual paths are the same and there's a need for individuals to explore their consciousness.

That moment led me on this trajectory of wanting to make change in the world. I got involved in drug policy at the university level around 2004-2005, then went to law school and got involved in medical cannabis and recreational cannabis reform. I’m now going on 18 or 19 years working on drug policy reform in various capacities.

Things were at their heyday in cannabis when one afternoon I was sitting in my office, and a lobbyist walked in asking if I'd be interested in helping this group decriminalize psilocybin in Denver. I almost spit my coffee out. I thought, “that's ridiculous.” At that point, no one had ever done a public vote on legalizing or decriminalizing psychedelics. But there was a very well organized and passionate group of activists pushing the measure, so we worked with the Decrim Denver campaign to draft the first city measure. When it passed with 50.6%, I was shocked. It really showed me the public was ready for change on this issue.

You also co-authored Colorado's Prop 122, which created the nation’s second state-regulated, legal access model for natural psychedelics. How will Colorado’s program be different from Oregon’s?

There are three main components to Colorado's measure. First, there's the regulated access model similar to Oregon's, but with better integration into our medical and mental health system. Second, there's a personal communal use model that allows people to grow, possess, share and engage in community-based ceremonies. That doesn’t exist in Oregon; Colorado is actually the only state with these sorts of freedoms. The third part includes civil protections around child rearing, probation, parole, professional licensing, employment, housing, organ transplants, etc. for people who use natural medicines.

One big difference in Colorado’s therapeutic model is we have a two-tiered facilitator system. You have regular facilitators, similar to Oregon, and clinical facilitators who can treat or diagnose medical and mental health illnesses. Instead of treating psychedelic care as a standalone business like Oregon, we treat it as a modality of care.

We also allow for natural medicine services outside of healing centers, including private residences with certain requirements. Oregon is currently dealing with a lawsuit about home access for disabled or end-of-life patients. We got ahead of that issue; however, DORA is pushing back on this provision, which is really unfortunate for many people in Colorado who could benefit more from psychedelic care at their home than at a standalone business. Lastly, our advisory board can recommend adding other substances like DMT, mescaline, or ibogaine to the regulated model in the future.

With license applications set to open in January 2025, what steps can facilitators and entrepreneurs take now to prepare?

For facilitators, you have to go through an approved training program to apply for a training license. There are also accelerated pathways for legacy healers—folks who've been working in the psychedelic care space underground for at least two years with 200+ hours of administration sessions.

On the business side, the biggest linchpin for obtaining a license is going to be an approved location. Finding a property that's compliant, a thousand feet away from schools and daycares, and that won't be denied by local government is step one. Some local governments have specific zoning; some don't. You can start working on this now.

Then you've got the other pieces: building your team, raising money, and developing your ESG plan, which is required on the business side. There are a lot of traditional startup business checklist items everyone needs to do as well.

As a co-founder of the Microdosing Collective, what are your thoughts on incorporating microdosing into psychedelic policies? What challenges and opportunities do you see in this area?

The Microdosing Collective formed after we developed Colorado's Natural Medicine Health Act, and we realized there was an appetite for supervised psychedelic therapy and funding for decrim, but nobody was asking to create regulatory policy for safe, tested products people can use at home. In Oregon, about 5,000 people went through the regulated program last year, while around 300,000 people used psilocybin. That's a huge gap. 95% of people aren't going through the regulated program, whether because of prior experience, not knowing about it, or cost.

Our goal isn't to interrupt anyone else's policy work but to be additive. Even in Oregon, a good majority of service centers have some sort of microdosing protocol. Some people want to walk in the shallow end before doing a cannonball.

With the rise of psychedelic commerce in the U.S., we're seeing different varieties of products, some using synthetic psilocybin instead of natural for various reasons. The problem is there's no proper labeling in our current market. Aside from the issues around transparency and integrity, people have been getting sick. There's a real need for safe, tested products that people can rely on.

Looking ahead, what developments in psychedelic law and policy are you most excited about or concerned with?

I'm most excited about state-based reform. I'm excited about Colorado's program rolling out and seeing if the changes we made create any substantial difference in operability, accessibility, and participation compared to Oregon. Then, what's really exciting is what we can do in other states. Do we need to shift some of our strategies around psychedelic substances from the federal pathway to the state pathway? Does MDMA become part of the state pathway model? What about other synthetics?

But more than anything else, I hope for psychedelic tolerance. There are many pathways to psychedelic care and healing—from medicalized to state-regulated to decriminalized to personal use to microdosing to indigenous models. Every pathway has its problems and underbelly. It's really easy for us in the community who are attached to one pathway to point out all the harms of other pathways without addressing our own. I hope as this ecosystem unfolds, we can be tolerant of each other and accept that different pathways to psychedelic care might be better for different people.

Want more from Josh?

Join the Microdosing Collective to help advance and protect the right to microdose, or reach out to Josh for legal counsel through his firm Vicente LLP.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.