{"id":16855,"date":"2025-08-19T22:28:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/more-time-for-magic-mushroom-moratorium-cortez-city-council-decides\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:17","slug":"more-time-for-magic-mushroom-moratorium-cortez-city-council-decides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/more-time-for-magic-mushroom-moratorium-cortez-city-council-decides\/","title":{"rendered":"More time for \u2018magic mushroom\u2019 moratorium, Cortez City Council decides"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marine
Marine Corps combat veteran Matt Metzger, who grows his own mushrooms for microdosing psilocybin, displays prepared doses in packets Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Olympia, Washington. (Associated Press file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Cortez City Council is determined to take more time before \u201cmagic mushroom\u201d centers can sprout around town.<\/p>\n

With businesses selling psychedelic-assisted therapies \u2013 deemed \u201cnatural medicines\u201d in Colorado \u2013 expected to emerge in Cortez, the City Council has opted to spend more time to determine regulations.<\/p>\n

In February, City Council put a six-month moratorium in place to halt the approval process for new natural medicine businesses. That moratorium would have expired next week, on Aug. 26. In the meantime, City Council has deliberated over how the centers should be regulated. Those deliberations aren\u2019t over; more time is needed, council members agreed. As such, City Council voted unanimously on Aug. 12 to extend the moratorium for another three months.<\/p>\n

Cortez City Attorney Patrick Coleman had said during the Aug. 12 meeting that City Council members had been working diligently to develop regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not quite there,\u201d said Coleman. \u201cWe anticipate that the regulations could be finalized and adopted within those three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2022, Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that decriminalized psychedelic drugs. Soon after, in May 2023, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB23-290 into law<\/a>, regulating psychoactive medicines further and making Colorado the second state to legalize the consumption of psychedelic mushrooms under personal use or through the administration of therapeutic \u201chealing centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psychedelics have gained traction as therapeutic treatments for conditions such as PTSD and depression.<\/p>\n

SB23-290 also established the Natural Medicine Division within the Colorado Department of Revenue. Not only are healing centers licensed under the division\u2019s eye, but so too are other players considered natural medicine businesses, like those that grow or test the mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Cortez gets to make its own rules as for how such natural medicine centers are integrated into the community.<\/p>\n

Since last addressed by City Council during a mid-July meeting, regulations on such natural medicine have been drafted. During the Aug. 12 meeting, City Attorney Coleman brought that drafted ordinance before council members for review again.<\/p>\n

Numerous items headed for the next draft ordinance were mentioned for further consideration by councilors: How long should a person recently under the influence of psychedelics wait to operate a vehicle? How should natural medicines go under the zoning or land use code? How to go about regulating candy-like edible products?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take as much time as council feels like we need on this to go through it with a fine-tooth comb,\u201d said City Manager Drew Sanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very wise that we take another break in order to come back to this another time,\u201d said City Council member April Randle.<\/p>\n

That way, more time to digest the ordinance\u2019s language could be allotted for, Randle said.<\/p>\n

An upcoming council meeting will include a final reading of the ordinance before it is formally adopted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council voted to extend a moratorium originally put in place for six months on natural medicine centers, giving elected officials extra time to decide on regulations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20431,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16855\/revisions\/20431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16855"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}