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June 20, 2025: What MDMA and other psychedelics can teach about Colorado’s embrace of psilocybin

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PSYCHEDELIC SCIENCE 2025
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Luke Schroeder, one of numerous artists painting canvases in the exhibition hall at the 2025 Psychedelic Science convention in Denver, June 18, 2025.

A major psychedelics conference wraps up in Denver today. Its mission is to get more people, especially policy makers, comfortable with what has previously been underground. We speak with the founder of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Science, about the science and what's left to learn as Colorado licenses psilocybin healing centers. Plus a company in clinical trials, and an awareness campaign about the potential risks. Then, nurse Tara Rynders used to hold in all the trauma of the job. But through music and movement, she's managed to change that for herself and for other practitioners. Now she has a one-woman show, "A Nurse is Calling."

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Science, speaks with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner in his downtown Denver hotel room. June 18, 2025.
Gov. Jared Polis speaks a the 2025 Psychedelic Science Conference
Kiare DeMare/CPR News
Gov. Jared Polis speaks a the 2025 Psychedelic Science Conference at the Colorado Convention Center. June 18, 2025.