Pitkin County considers minimum distance between schools, psilocybin treatment

Pitkin County Public Health staff presented recommendations to the Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners on minimum distance requirements that would separate school and childcare facilities from psychedelic treatment centers administering “magic mushrooms” in accordance with recently passed Colorado law. 

Their recommendations, which they arrived at during a July 17 Board of Health meeting, were to keep the 1,000-foot distance regulation from high schools and middle schools recommended by the state but amend the minimum distance from childcare facilities to zero. 

However, at Tuesday’s BOCC work session, Pitkin County public health staff reverted back to the 1,000-foot minimum distance for schools and childcare facilities and carved out an exemption for “micro-healing centers,” allowing them to operate 200-feet away from childcare facilities. 

Micro-healing centers do not base their entire business model on the administration of psilocybin treatment and store less than 750-miligrams of the drug on site.

“I would hate to see a center with a door right next to a daycare and having people going in and out of basically almost the same door,” Dr. Kimberly Levin, Pitkin County public health director, said to the county commissioners on Tuesday. “If we restrict it to 200-feet, which would be my recommendation, I think that would at least give a little bit of breathing room.”

Colorado’s law regulating these types of treatment centers allows for local regulation adjustment to these minimum distances. So far, Boulder and Colorado Springs have both departed from the state’s default recommendation of 1,000-feet among schools, childcare facilities, and psychedelic treatment centers. 

Boulder relaxed the regulations by dropping minimum distance requirements to 500-feet between schools and psychedelic treatment centers, with no minimum distance requirement between childcare facilities and those same treatment centers. 

Colorado Springs took a stricter approach, placing significant limitations on where treatment centers can be operated in city limits by calling for a one mile minimum distance among schools, childcare facilities, and psychedelic treatment centers. 

Psilocybin minimum distance regulations follow in the same footsteps as similar regulations on the distribution of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. All three of those substances have minimum distance requirements that separate their distribution from schools and childcare facilities. 

“Those three substances (nicotine, tobacco, and alcohol) need to be sold more than 500-feet from a school, and then retail and medical marijuana stores right now are required to be more than 1,000-feet from schools and childcare facilities,” Jordana Sabella, public health director at Pitkin County, said.

According to the July 17 Pitkin County Board of Health meeting where the board discussed their potential recommendations, these distance regulations come from a body of research that shows benefits for adults and adolescents who had greater distances to travel in order to obtain alcohol or tobacco. 

“In the American Journal of Public Health in 2011, participants living in a short walking distance, 500 meters, from the closest tobacco retail outlet were less likely to maintain continuous abstinence from smoking six months following a quit attempt than those who live further from the closest tobacco retail outlets,” said Dr. Levin at the July 17 Board of Health meeting.

However, because psilocybin mushrooms are not sold over the counter for individuals to consume outside the premises at psychedelic treatment centers, there is less consensus on whether individuals would be affected by potential proximity to a treatment center. 

“We’re trying to balance the commentary that we heard from the Board of Health while understanding that these distance protections do have evidence of working for other substances, like tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana,” said Sabella. “While still understanding that the setting is different when just walking in and purchasing something versus being overseen by someone with a license to practice in that way.”

The commissioners did not take any action at the Tuesday work meeting and will have to schedule a future meeting with Pitkin County Community Development to consider how the county would enact the land-use code changes that would regulate this. 

Some commissioners expressed concern about changing the state regulation so quickly after they were enacted. 

“This regulation was just enacted, and we’re already trying to change it when we don’t even know what the outcomes will be,” said Commissioner Greg Poschman. “We don’t know what the situation is. You know, time will tell if this is an issue or not.”

Other commissioners were interested in the logistical procedures of such a change, which will be answered in a future meeting with Community Development.