Chris Walker
Ballot Trip
What will the future of psychedelics look like in Colorado–and across America? And who might try to control it? Ballot Trip is a four-part narrative podcast series I produced for City Cast Denver with the support of the Ferriss–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Reporting Fellowship.
It explores those very questions, chronicling two statewide campaigns that aimed to get psychedelics ballot measures before Colorado voters in the November 2022 election. Only one measure passed: the Natural Medicine Health Act – which went by Proposition 122. But the series remains a pertinent examination of why local activists became bitterly divided, and highlights a number of important concerns: are we ready to handle a psychedelics industry? Could a state-overseen psychedelic-assisted therapy program be equitable, affordable, and accessible for all people–including marginalized and legacy Indigenous communities? And what are some of the opportunities, as well as challenges, that Proposition 122 poses?
© 2024 Chris Walker