Next week I’ll be attending the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Supposedly it’s the biggest psychedelics conference in the world, expecting 10K+ attendees and 300+ speakers. The speakers include Paul Stamets and Michael Pollan – you might know them from Fantastic Fungi or How to Change Your Mind.

I’m going because I want to learn more about psychedelics. I also want to immerse myself in a social world of people who are open-minded about such explorations. I’ve only done a few journeys so far, the last one being several months ago, and I’d like to explore new experiences along those lines in the months and years ahead.

I learned about this conference only last week by attending a local psychedelics meetup group here in Vegas. It was lovely to connect in person with other like-minded people who are exploring psychedelics for self-development and for mind-expanding and heart-opening experiences. The vibe of that group reminded me of the warmth and connectedness that I experienced during my last journey.

If you’re just learning about the conference now and feel tempted to go, it’s pretty easy to find discount codes online for 10-20% off the admission price.

The conference website lists an almost overwhelming number of sessions that explore psychedelics from a variety of perspectives – medical research and results, Indigenous perspectives, decriminalization efforts, personal exploration advice, and lots more. I figure I’m bound to learn a lot from it.

There are many social events connected to this conference too, so many that it may be hard to choose which ones to attend – yoga sessions, dance parties, shroom journeys in the woods, etc.

I’ve never been to this conference before, but I expect that it’s going to be a fascinating week. 😀

I also saw this one on a related web page:

Colorado’s Proposition 122, which was voted into law in 2022, allows for the personal use of psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline (not from peyote). This means people in Colorado under Colorado law are now allowed to grow, share and gift these substances, but they are not allowed to sell them. Possession and use of these substances are still illegal under federal law.

Nevada seems to be on a path towards decriminalizing psychedelics as well. On June 2nd the Nevada legislature passed Senate Bill 242, which establishes a psychedelic medicine working group as part of the state’s health department. They’ll study psychedelics for treating a variety of ailments, and if that goes well, it creates a pathways for decriminalizing personal use for all Nevadans.

This Nevada bill actually got going as a result of constituents talking to members of the state assembly and encouraging this transformation in government’s relationship to psychedelics. There are similar bills being introduced in several other U.S. states too. This will likely take years to play out, but it’s an interesting step.