Colorado Springs veterans seek healing in “magic” mushrooms, but live in the state's strictest county

“This is how we honor him by making things like this [psilocybin mushrooms] available. This is how we can actually bring that number down meaningfully,” Dez said about the church’s veteran meet-up group. 

Clinical psychologist Jim Grigsby said treatment providers are turning to new methods, including psychedelic-assisted therapies, but the struggle to gain acceptance for these treatments is not new.

Grigsby began exploring psychedelic research in the 1970s as a graduate student, but strict U.S. federal regulations — including the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which classified LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelics as Schedule I drugs — made the approval process difficult.

In 2023, after submitting four proposals, Grigsby received funding from the National Cancer Institute to study the therapeutic use of psilocybin for people with advanced cancer. Currently, he is co-leading a psilocybin clinical trial at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and New York University, studying anxiety and depression in patients with advanced cancer.

“For psilocybin … it’s moving along pretty well. The studies that have been done so far have been very positive, very promising for things like depression, addictions and anxiety. But there aren't yet quite enough data to make out a definite statement,” he said. 

At the Colorado Psychedelic Church, Dez, along with two clergy members, serve as guides for participants during their psychedelic experiences. Doses range from about three to five grams, depending on if someone wants a more intense and longer experience, Dez said. The church is not a medical facility; there are no licensed medical professionals or facilitators.

“Everybody who is a clergy has first-hand experience with the medicine, but we also do group training where I can impart some of the knowledge from past professions,” said Dez, who has over a decade of experience working as a counselor in the mental health field and holds a degree in psychology. 

“I'm not going to pretend to be a medical facility, but if someone comes in a true crisis, my clergy are given the skills and the ability to stop and to recognize it. It's a moral necessity. I don't care if it's a legal one,” Dez said. This means they help people get professional support if needed, he said. 

Under Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act, psilocybin facilitators don’t need mental health licenses and can qualify as trained non-clinicians through education and training.

Many participants use the veteran meetings at the church to discuss their traumas, loss and what psychedelic substances did for their healing. 

“It was a constant thing. I had coworkers die, you know, and I had coworkers kill themselves,” said Steward, who attends the veteran meetings. He learned about the meetings online. 

Steward said the tough-guy environment of the military made processing grief difficult. 

“A lot of it has to do with tradition and with masculinity of like, ‘I don't want to come off too weak,’” he said. “And so you'd even try to be subtle about trying to check on people. And even if you knew someone was struggling, they were not going to receive any empathy because they had to look strong.”

For Steward, masking his struggles led to binge drinking. 


“I would drink both at work and after work, like, ‘Oh, well, if it kills me, that's OK.
I don't have to go back to work tomorrow.’ And I never thought of myself as having those mental health struggles,” he said. 

Steward eventually suffered a mental breakdown. He opened up to medical professionals when he was still in the Army. Previously, he’d hidden his substance abuse from colleagues because most veterans he worked with, he said, habitually shared only a fraction of their struggles in fear they would have limitations put on their assignments.

Natural psychedelic substances have helped him come out of the dark. Psilocybin and DMT have been the most effective, he said.

“What I immediately experienced was a sense that a static that had persisted in all of my senses without me realizing … it suddenly got quieter,” he said. “Like, I was suddenly experiencing peace I didn't know I could have. And every moment since then has been easier for me just to exist as if there's just less strain from being alive.”

As access to psychedelic use changes, many new research studies are currently underway.

Grigsby cautions that psychedelics aren’t safe for everyone. People with atrial fibrillation or other heart arrhythmias may be at risk. Also, young people, typically under 25, or those with a personal or family history of psychosis may be more likely to experience psychotic reactions, Grigsby said.

According to American Addiction Centers, chronic use of psychedelic drugs can cause hallucinogen-induced persistent perception disorder, where individuals experience flashbacks long after last use. Risk is higher for those with co-occurring psychological disorders or a history of bad trips, when combining psychedelics with substances like alcohol or marijuana, or after prolonged use of psychedelics like LSD or mescaline. 

Now, Steward rarely drinks. About a couple mushroom trips a year helps him more spiritually and emotionally than alcohol ever did, he said. 

“It's made me not ever want to pick up a bottle again,” he said. 

One of the members in the veteran meet-up group is Timothy Cagle, who is in a relationship with Dez.