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Week of February 16, 2023
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DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 96 | ISSUE 13
Our in-depth look at the housing crisis
Mushroom legalization faces rough rollout Regulators unprepared BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
go to landlords. Young families can’t find starter homes they can afford. Retirees don’t see any attractive options for moving and downsizing, meaning their homes stay off the market, helping keep prices high. “Just look west,” Polis said in his address. “In California, decades of poor planning has led to interruptions of drinking water and electricity for entire towns and cities, average home prices over $1 million in major cities and 16lane freeways” with “bumper-to-
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies recently warned state lawmakers that it is unprepared for its assigned job of implementing the state’s new, second-in-thenation legal “magic mushroom” industry, which voters approved in November. The department — which normally oversees sectors like insurance and banking — is tasked with quickly adopting a regulatory structure under which psychedelic mushrooms can be legally consumed by people 21 and older at licensed facilities. The facilities are set to open as soon as late 2024. DORA will also be responsible for writing regulations governing the cultivation and manufacturing of psychedelic mushrooms, as well as protecting consumers, developing public education campaigns and making recommendations to the legislature about how to shape the industry. There’s just one problem: DORA says it has no idea what it’s doing when it comes to psilocybin, the hallucination-inducing compound derived from psychedelic mushrooms. “This is an area completely outside the scope of any existing expertise or
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Governor stresses more housing is key to Colorado’s economic health BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
If lawmakers don’t act to make housing more affordable now, “we will soon face a spiraling point of no return.” That’s what Gov. Jared Polis said in January, during his annual State of the State Address. He noted myriad problems linked to rising housing costs. People, he said, “are being forced out of their neighborhoods with no hope of ever living close to where they work.” “That means more traffic, lost INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11
time and money spent on long commutes, more air pollution, and greater economic and workforce challenges,” Polis said. Polis added that rising housing prices are “putting the dream of homeownership out of range for more and more Coloradans.” The governor’s assessment squares with the findings of Colorado Community Media in our four-week series exploring what many experts say is a housing crisis — one that affects practically everyone in the Denver area. Lower-income workers are seeing larger chunks of their paychecks
DENVER’S UNSUNG HERO Statue will honor the late Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose
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