Denver Launches the Nation’s First Psychedelic Harm Reduction Training for First Responders

Future lawsuit territory?

Interesting piece from Lucid news.

First responders in Denver, Colorado, will soon have another tool to support their community: psychedelic harm reduction. A new training now in development in the city and county, where the personal use and possession of psilocybin was decriminalized in May of 2019, will educate and support members of city and county departments, including the police and sheriff’s departments, the fire department, paramedics and hospital dispatchers, and mental health workers, as they help citizens experiencing challenges while using psilocybin.

With decriminalization efforts underway in many other cities and states, this new training, the first of its kind in the US, could set the stage for the design and deployment of programs like it across the country. But for now, the developers are focused on creating a training that emphasizes compassionate response, de-escalation, and the safety and well-being of individuals having a challenging time with a psychedelic experience.

Wide-scale community support and the cooperation and shared mission of several groups – the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the City and County of Denver, and Denver’s Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel (DPMPRP)  – laid the foundation for the training, after Ordinance 301, also called the Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative, was approved by voters in 2019, making psilocybin the lowest law enforcement priority in Denver.

Another first of its kind in the country, the DPMPRP collects data and advises policymakers in Denver on the effects that loosening restrictions around the possession and use of psilocybin might have on the community. The ordinance mandated the creation and composition of the 10-member advisory group, which currently includes a harm reduction advocate, one member of City Council, two proponents of Ordinance 301, one certified addiction counselor, a representative each from the Denver Police Department and the Denver Sheriff’s Department, a criminal defense attorney, one representative from the Denver District Attorney’s Office, and one from the Denver City Attorney’s Office.

Sara Gael, DPMPRP’s Harm Reduction Advocate, also serves as the Harm Reduction Officer for MAPS. She came on board because of her investment in “the possibility of integrating psychedelic harm reduction training and education into city and county departments,” she says. “In the Denver training initiative, we intend to train City and County of Denver first responders across the following sectors: police officers and Sheriff deputies, Denver Health Paramedics, EMTs within the Fire Department, emergency response dispatch staff, mental health co-responders, and detention center staff.”

MAPS is spearheading the training and, through philanthropic donations, is funding the training development through completion of the initial pilot phase.

Gael explains, “DPMPRP’s mission is to assess, review, and report on the impact of psilocybin mushroom decriminalization as it pertains to the public safety, public administration, public health, and fiscal impacts in the City and County of Denver, and make recommendations to the Denver City Council. The panel’s efforts feature many first-ever considerations, and the panel has been busy examining many of the important details needed to promote public safety. Soon after its formation, members of the panel recognized the need for harm reduction training in Denver and identified MAPS, with 35 years as a foremost leader in psychedelic research and education, as the organization best-positioned for the work.”

Read the full report at 

Denver Launches the Nation’s First Psychedelic Harm Reduction Training for First Responders

Primary Sponsor

 


Karma Koala Podcast

Top Marijuana Blog