Kevin Matthews was a key figure in both the 2018 campaign to decriminalize psilocybin in Denver and the 2022 campaign to pass Prop 122, which legalized psychedelics in regulated and personal use settings. Today he is CEO of the Helix Consulting Group, a public affairs and education services firm for the psychedelic ecosystem.
Matthews recently shared his thoughts on the rollout of Prop 122, how his struggle with depression changed the course of his life, and the role he believes psychedelics can play at this point in human history.
Your experience with psychedelics began after you were diagnosed with major depression during your third year at West Point. How did that journey unfold?
I wanted to be a U.S. military officer since I was about 9 years old. I was fortunate to get into the Military Academy, but after about 2-1/2 years I just fell into this dark hole, this very depressive state. There were a lot of circumstances that contributed to its onset. It’s not something I talk about too often, but I was adopted and I met my birth mom my sophomore year. I had been raised by my father as a single child/single parent, bless his heart. He passed away in 2020, and he did such an incredible job as a dad. But I realized I had a lot of underlying childhood trauma. I mean, we all have it to some extent, but in my case I had feelings of abandonment, not being nursed by my mother as a baby, really core childhood things that were missing. So I think meeting my mom played a role. I was like, “Oh, I have a mom now.” And she’s this incredible woman in my life who I can relate to. We’re the best of friends today. I love her. And I also found out I have two sisters. I think all this contributed to my decision to leave the Academy. It turned out to be the most beautiful gift because, even though I struggled in terms of reintegrating into society and figuring out my sense of self and identity, I was able to learn so much about human psychology. I dug into self-help and spirituality, which eventually led me down the path I’m on today, working in psychedelic policy reform and working to liberate these medicines for as many people as possible. Psilocybin mushrooms have had just such an incredible impact on my life.
Was there one major turning-point experience with psilocybin, or was it more of a gradual impact?
Definitely a major breakthrough experience. It was actually 11 years ago last month. I was with friends, and I was sitting in a park in Denver looking up at the clouds. Then the clouds parted and I had this intuition, this feeling, this sense, almost like a voice saying, “Hey Kev, you don’t have to be a victim to your diagnosis anymore. You can make these small steps every day to start a path to healing and not have to take antidepressants for the rest of your life.” I never could have predicted how that experience would change the trajectory of my life.
Did that experience prompt you to get involved with policy work? Is that when you joined the campaign to decriminalize psilocybin in Denver?
Yes, the 2018 campaign was my first official involvement in the psychedelic space. Most of us who spearheaded that campaign didn’t have any policy experience, and here I was the campaign manager and for the first time in my life an advocate/activist for something. We were really bootstrapped and just tried to do the best we could to spread awareness about psilocybin. Going into Election Day we were basically down by a seven-point margin. But then on Election night, we started to see we were overcoming that margin. I will always remember the day after the election because we ended up winning by just a couple thousand votes. Boy, it was incredible. My mind and body were buzzing for days after that.
That success led to another. Four years later, you worked to get Prop 122 passed as coalition director for Natural Medicine Colorado. How did that victory feel?
Oh, it was a trip of a lifetime. Working with such an amazing group of people on these very grassroots campaigns was truly incredible and inspiring. I couldn’t have imagined things turning out any better.
Now that the measure is being rolled out, with an Advisory Board established to determine to rules of regulated access, do you have any concerns about its implementation? I understand there are rumors that legislators may look to reduce or limit the personal use and possession component.
If Colorado is going to be a model both for decriminalization and regulation, then it’s my personal opinion that lawmakers should wait to create additional limits around personal use. As I understand it, lawmakers have said they want to retain the spirit and intent of the measure, which is really rooted in civil liberties for adults to be able to share these medicines with their friends, family, and community. This is incredibly important. It’s been the foundation of this effort. Denver is the only city in the country where the possession of psilocybin is actually encoded under the human rights section of the municipal code. A lot of people don’t understand this, but the implications are huge. This act is based on civil liberty.
As far as the Advisory Board creating the rules for the regulated model, I believe they need to be most focused on setting up standards of accountability and safety for people seeking treatment. That’s number one. Next is making treatments affordable for marginalized populations, especially people of color. I think they understand that. We have 17 months until access is formally open. And we should start getting a sense of the rule-making process in mid-May. Either way, it’s gonna be a very interesting 17 months, especially once we find out what kinds of bills legislators are submitting to amendment proposition.
About a dozen other states are now considering regulation or decrim bills. At the same time, the FDA appears likely to approve MDMA and psilocybin in the coming years. How do you view these different psychedelics-access models?
There are three ways people can access these medicines, and I believe all of them are very important as avenues to help the most possible people: 1) The straight decriminalization model, where possession is the lowest law enforcement priority, like literally police are more likely to cite you for jaywalking than possessing psilocybin. 2) The state regulated model like in Oregon and Colorado, where there’s a facilitator-based access program with licensing. And 3) the FDA model, which is the pharmaceutical model than hopefully insurance ends up covering. I think all of these models are valuable, can develop and coexist with each other.
What about the inherent financial conflict between the pharmaceutical model and the regulated/decriminalization models? Are you concerned the profit motive could end up slowing regulation efforts and limiting psychedelic access?
This is something that’s been on my mind for a long, long time. And it’s why I would love to see regulated-access programs come online in as many states as possible in the next couple of years. Because I do have a concern pharma-industry lobbyists could be deployed in states that are considering regulated-access legislation to thwart those efforts. Obviously, the pharma industry would like to minimize or reduce regulated access to create a bigger market for their patented compounds. But I do think all these different models can and will coexist together. Because deep down I believe the medicine itself is really in charge. I know that sounds kind of far out there to some people. But these medicines — psilocybin in particular — they’re in the zeitgeist for a reason right now. The more opportunities for access, the quicker we can help people get on their healing path. And then I think we’ll see an incredible creativity and cultural transformation happen as a result.
You recently said that access to psychedelics is a national security issue. Can you elaborate on that?
If you look across the country right now, rates of mental health issues and behavioral health issues are rising quickly. Traditional interventions like talk therapy, SSRIs, etc., work for some people, but they don’t work for many people. At the same time, we’re collectively facing multiple crises as a species right now. It’s no surprise to me that psychedelics have emerged as a healing tool. I believe we’re trying to prepare ourselves for what’s next. If we’re suffering from depression or anxiety as a country, how are we going to make the necessary changes and innovations that will enable us to survive? That’s why I see psychedelic access as a national security issue. Using these medicines should be a civil liberty or a human right, which we can use to enter a new era.
What do you imagine is a realistic hope that could happen if more people use psychedelics? What does this new era look like?
Well, these medicines already live within us. Our bodies produce DMT, and the compounds in mushrooms and ayahuasca are really just helping to wake up part of ourselves that’s already there. And when a person gets on that healing path, an incredible amount of bandwidth and energy can get released into creative pursuits and big projects. That’s what I love so much about this work. If these medicines get more into the national consciousness, they can help us get to the root of the biggest issues we’re facing personally and culturally. What excites me is the real possibility of building a greater human community. Again might sound a little out there. But I think this medicine is coming online for this very reason right now. It can help liberate us from the toxic parts of our culture, help us reimagine our political systems, our financial systems, our energy systems, our food systems. There’s a real opportunity here for transformation in almost every sector of the human experience.
