psychedelics

The action doesn't legalize psilocybin mushrooms, but it effectively bars the city from prosecuting or arresting adults 21 or older who possess them.

Denver could be the first place to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms if voters pass a ballot measure today. Supporters point to research finding therapeutic effects from fungi containing psilocybin.

Author Michael Pollan, who experimented with mushrooms, LSD and other psychedelics while researching his latest book, says: "I had an experience that was by turns frightening and ecstatic and weird."

It's been reviled and revered, criminalized and exploited by the CIA. And now and other psychedelic drugs are being tested as legitimate medical treatments. NPR's original animation tells the tale.