Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Hecock.

Before I introduced today's episode, I wanted to give you all a heads up on Chris's latest project.

Now, Chris is not just my back from the abyss co-conspirator.

He's also a musician and songwriter, and his current musical project is called Who's Larry?

That's spelled W.H. O-O-Z.

During the pandemic, Chris wrote a song called Have My Heart, a song about

craving those personal connections that were all put on hold. He calls it a love song to love.

So I hope you all check it out. The Spotify link will be in the show notes.

So we're now about six weeks out from a pretty momentous occasion here in Colorado,

the statewide passage of Proposition 122, the Natural Medicine's Health Act.

Colorado voted by a tally of 53 to 47 percent to approve both the decriminalization of psilocybin,

DMT, Ibegain, and mescaline, and the medicalization of psilocybin, with the possibility of a

medicalization pathway for the others in 26. This is a landmark, tipping point kind of social change, and one that I think

triggers a huge number of hopes, concerns, and lots and lots and lots of questions. As I pondered

who would be best to help me explore this new landscape, I quickly decided that it had to be

Shannon Hughes. She's a CSU professor

of social work who specializes in issues of drugs, medications, and society. She's also a

co-founder of the NOAC Society, which is Colorado's preeminent force for psychedelic education

and community. And she also has a private practice here in Fort Collins focused on coaching psychedelic

integration and psychospiritual depth work.

I'm really excited for you to hear this conversation with Shannon.

I think we come at Prop 122 from quite different yet complimentary perspectives.

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