You’ve most likely heard of psychedelic retreats in Peru, the Netherlands, and Jamaica. A scenic retreat, complete with healthy food and like-minded people, is a beautiful way to experience these medicines. However, with travel and accommodations, retreats can be costly.
At Psychedelic Passage, we come to you. We believe that the transformation of consciousness is a fundamental human right, and it’s more possible than ever to have a safe, supported psychedelic experience right here in the Land of Enchantment.
The key lies in the word therapy. Psychedelic-assisted therapy involves a mental health professional licensed by their state government. Currently, psychedelic-assisted therapy is only available in clinical trials, because in every state except Oregon, psychedelics are illegal. If a therapist uses psychedelics in their practice, they could lose their license.
However, providing a therapeutic psychedelic experience is different. Therapeutic simply means “to have a beneficial effect on the body or mind.” Someone who is not a therapist can provide a psychedelic experience and call it therapeutic without the same legal consequences.
But not just anyone should guide people through these experiences. Here at Psychedelic Passage, our facilitators are all trained in various healing modalities. In addition to extensive backgrounds with psychedelics, our facilitators cultivate a deep sense of personal integrity. They prioritize your safety, constantly work with mentors to improve, and openly admit their limitations.
In this article, we’ll be going over the legal landscape of psychedelics in New Mexico and how you can have a therapeutic psychedelic experience right in your area.
Benefits of Having a Therapeutic Psychedelic Experience
Psychedelics are not panaceas. They are transformative, but they don’t fix anything— the real reason why psychedelics are gaining so much attention is because they empower people. They are tools that remind people of the power they have to heal their traumas and be their most authentic selves.
For those with treatment-resistant mental health disorders, psychedelics can be a saving grace. MDMA allows those with PTSD to revisit and release their traumas from a new perspective of love and compassion. Depression is characterized by an overly rigid sense of self, and psilocybin “magic” mushrooms turn off the neural network most responsible for maintaining that self, gifting those with the disorder the chance to taste the magic and aliveness of life.
Psychedelics are also known as “entheogens,” which is a term that describes substances used for spiritual purposes. Regardless of your religious belief, a mystical experience on psychedelics can be life-changing. Becoming one with a higher intelligence can inspire people to become more conscious of how they interact with the earth, other people, and their innermost selves.
Simply put, more things are possible when you operate from a higher level of consciousness. You can make a bigger impact on the world when you act from love and abundance vs. competition and scarcity. It doesn’t even take a large dose— microdosing, or taking small amounts of a substance several times a week, helps people optimize their impact by enhancing creativity, focus, and productivity.
The Current Legislation on Psychedelics in New Mexico
While Oregon may be the first state to legalize the use of psilocybin for healing, cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms has been legal in New Mexico for seventeen years.
In 2005, the New Mexico Court of Appeals reversed a drug manufacturing charge on a man who had mushrooms growing in his home. Taking precedent from a ruling made six years earlier on marijuana, the court decided that a plant growing from soil could not be considered manufacturing. Since this ruling, you cannot preserve dried mushrooms or extract psilocybin, but you can grow fresh mushrooms without legal penalty.
The University of New Mexico School of Medicine is home to Dr. Rick Strassman, the author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Dr. Strassman has conducted pivotal research on the DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics and a chemical found in our own bodies.
There are also a host of different psychedelic clubs throughout the state. Decriminalize Nature, the organization founded in Oakland to decriminalize all plant and fungi psychedelics, has a chapter in Albuquerque. Although there have been no reform measures introduced in the state legislature, New Mexico has many seeds of change that may very soon grow into full scale reformation.
Your Legal Options for Therapeutic Psychedelic Experiences in New Mexico
In New Mexico, you have two options for a therapeutic psychedelic experience: ketamine clinics and guided psychedelic journeys.
It’s important to note that if you do decide to pursue a guided psychedelic journey, you are responsible for sourcing your own medicine. If you have questions or concerns about this process, check out our Resources page for more information.
1. Ketamine Clinics
Compared to conventional psychedelics like ayahuasca or LSD, ketamine can feel more “clinical.” However, it gifts people the detached perspective necessary to see their issues in a new way— especially those with depression. Ketamine is also legal for medical purposes, making it the only available substance for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
However, the therapy you’ll find offered in clinics can vary. Some clinics, for example, don’t offer therapy at all. Ketamine journeys can be disorienting without proper psychological support, so you’ll want to make sure you find a clinic that provides therapy before and after your session.
Check out our guide to find a clinic near you. If you can’t find one that offers adequate support, consider a psychedelic integration specialist. These folks are therapists, social workers, and even chaplains who are knowledgeable of psychedelics and can help you process your journeys.
2. Guided Psychedelic Journeys with Psychedelic Passage
No matter where you live in New Mexico, if we can physically get to you, we will sit for you.
Typically, our programs are five weeks long. Before your in-person ceremony, we’ll have two virtual preparation sessions to set intentions and discuss what might come up in ceremony. After you journey, the real work begins, and we’ll have two virtual integration sessions to weave your psychedelic experience into your everyday life.
If you don’t feel ready for a full dose journey, we can coach you through a microdosing protocol. Microdosing is a great way to get acclimated to the medicine of your choice, and for many people, it’s an opportunity to realize that psychedelics aren’t that scary after all.
While most of our clients choose to journey with psilocybin mushrooms, all of our facilitators are trained with numerous psychedelics, including DMT, mescaline, and LSD. If you would like to, we can sit for a cannabis journey as well.
We Provide Guided Psychedelic Journeys in Every Major New Mexico City
- Albuquerque
- Las Cruces
- Rio Rancho
- Santa Fe
- Roswell
- Farmington
- South Valley
- Clovis
- Hobbs
- Alamogordo
- Carlsbad
- Taos
Ready to Take the Next Step in Your Healing Journey?
The revolution promised by psychedelics has to do with relationships. Everything you do in this life depends on the relationship you have to yourself, to others, and to the universe as a whole. In the chaotic world we live in, it’s easy to have relationships marked by stress, insecurity, and apathy.
Psychedelics gift us the opportunity to choose differently. When we experience freedom from our limiting beliefs or that ineffable connection with a higher intelligence, we gain the ability to choose love over hate, empathy over judgment. It’s these choices that will completely redefine how we relate to the world and, by extension, how we will save it.
If you’ve made it this far and would like to take the next steps, book a consultation call with us. We’d love to hear from you.
