Justice
Voters Chose to Decriminalize a Drug. Now the City Faces a Choice.
A ballot measure directs the city to decriminalize magic mushrooms. Officials must now decide how—or if—they plan to make that happen.
When Denver voters approved a measure Tuesday to decriminalize psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, it raised a familiar question: What happens next?
Unconfirmed election results show the ballot initiative, Initiative 301, narrowly passing with 50.5 percent of the vote. Though mushrooms will still be illegal, the initiative instructs city officials to make arrests for the possession or use of psilocybin the “lowest law enforcement priority in the City and County of Denver.”