Gov. Polis tells Bill Maher he’s “excited” about medical ‘shrooms after voters pass psilocybin legalization

Gov. Jared Polis was noticeably quiet about his stance on legalizing psilocybin prior to the midterm election, but since Colorado voters approved Proposition 122 — which paves the way for legal psychedelic therapy in the state — the governor has expressed support for the initiative.

On a recent episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the titular host and comedian interviewed Polis and asked specifically about the new law.

“Was this something you were passionately involved with, mushrooms?” asked Maher.

“Not personally,” Polis replied.

“You’ve never done mushrooms?” Maher said.

“No, I never have,” Polis said.

“Oh, you’ll like ‘em,” Maher replied.

Polis, who described himself as an advocate for both medical and recreational marijuana, praised the medical potential of psychedelic mushrooms, especially for local veterans.

“There is a lot of promise that some of the mushroom-based therapies (and) natural medicines show for post-traumatic stress disorder, for depression — studies out of Johns Hopkins and others — and we want to make that available,” Polis told Maher. “The bureaucracy with the FDA, this stuff takes decades or years and it comes out costing $1,000 a pill. It’s ridiculous, right? So we want to make this available. It’s promising. We’re going to work on getting right from a health perspective in Colorado, but anything we can do to help those with PTSD.”

When Maher pressed Polis about using ‘shrooms “just for fun,” Polis played down the decriminalization aspect of Proposition 122. In addition to legalizing psilocybin and psilocin, two psychoactive compounds found in psychedelic mushrooms, the measure decriminalizes the personal growth, use and sharing of the aforementioned substances plus ibogaine, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.

“Our law was not really about that. It’s more like the medical side,” Polis said. “What we’re excited about are some of the medical opportunities.”

Watch the segment below:

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