Denver, Colorado will soon be offering over 4,000 first responders with psychedelic harm reduction training. The city decriminalized the personal use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms in May 2019 under Ordinance 301. It’s also called the Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative. Since then, the city and several departments have been working to create a safer environment for psychedelic consumers. 

Training Objective

Under the psychedelic harm reduction training, the city hopes to educate the public and various departments. Those include:

• Police and Sheriff’s Department
• Fire Department
• Paramedics and hospital dispatchers
• Mental Health Workers

The training will focus on compassionate response, de-escalation of intense situations that could turn harmful, and keeping the safety and wellbeing of individuals at the forefront of responders’ minds. This is the first program of its kind in the country, and it’s led by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and Denver’s Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel (DPMPRP). 

DPMPRP’s Harm Reduction Advocate, Sara Gael, spoke recently on the efforts the organization has done to help the Denver community. 

“DPMPRP’s mission is to assess, review, and report on the impact of psilocybin mushroom decriminalization as it pertains to the public safety, public administration, public health, and fiscal impacts in the City and County of Denver, and make recommendations to the Denver City Council. The panel’s efforts feature many first-ever considerations, and the panel has been busy examining many of the important details needed to promote public safety. Soon after its formation, members of the panel recognized the need for harm reduction training in Denver and identified MAPS, with 35 years as a foremost leader in psychedelic research and education, as the organization best-positioned for the work.”

Additional Organizations

MAPS and DPMPRP aren’t the only organizations in Denver helping people. The Zendo Project has been providing psychedelic harm reduction opportunities to decrease the number of unnecessary arrests and hospitalizations. The project demonstrates that safe and productive psychedelic experiences can happen without needing law enforcement or prohibitionist policies. 

Another organization is the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program. This new program has police joining up with mental health professionals to respond to situations with people in crises. These crises can relate to mental health, poverty, homelessness, and potential substance abuse. By providing more help than harm to those who need it, STAR is able to de-escalate situations. Additionally, they offer help where other programs have not been able to in the past. 

Future

These organizations, along with the psychedelic harm reduction training for first responders, are following ideas to decrease harmful criminalization efforts. Furthermore, these ideas or guidelines come from NIDA’s director, Nora Volkow. 

“We must eliminate the attitudes and infrastructure barring treating people with substance use disorders,” Director Volkow explained in a recent interview. “The science of the matter is unequivocal: Addiction is a chronic and treatable medical condition, not a weakness of will or character or a form of social deviance. But stigma and longstanding prejudices—even within healthcare—lead decision-makers across healthcare, criminal justice, and other systems to punish people who use drugs rather than treat them.”

Denver is leading the charge in helping, not hindering or harming, individuals who need help the most. City officials hope that their psychedelic harm reduction training can be used across the country. But for now, the Denver first responders will take this new training and incorporate it into their daily routine. 

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