Let's keep Colorado on the leading edge of psychedelic medicine work by coming together in community to learn, share, and grow. Each Psychedelic Professionals Meetup Group starts with an informative topic relevant to research, practice, policy, or activism around psychedelic medicines, followed by open discussion and an opportunity to connect with like-minded others. In 2025, Mushies (“Magic Mushrooms”) are the most-used psychedelic substance in the United States. The popularity of these Master Plants is partially due to the healing and wellness that they offer to community members who sit with these substances. 100 people of color and low-income individuals in Colorado who participated in Marty’s qualitative and video-based psilocybin study (January 2023-present) shared via video-recorded interviews lived experiences using psilocybin-containing mushrooms to address mental health concerns, trauma and other wellness issues. Several individuals discussed steps to safely use “magic mushrooms” and best practices for growing their own medicine. While conducting this research, Marty organized the Denver-based Perspectives in Psychedelics: BIPOC Speaker with 10 indigenous and people of color performing community-based presentations on their views and concerns about the regulation of Master Plants in Colorado in 2024. This participatory presentation makes visible cross-cutting findings from each of these two projects related to indigenizing harm reduction.
Marty is an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department, University of Colorado Denver. Some of his research and creative work areas are psilocybin use among BIPOC and low-income individuals in Colorado, health and labor rights among cannabis workers in Colorado, and cannabis growing as an alternative to tobacco growing in Malawi, Africa. Today, Marty and his team of CU Denver student researchers are writing up findings from his psilocybin study designed to destigmatize and normalize psilocybin medicine. In 2024, Marty and co-author Aaraon Diaz (Mexico City) published the four-volume book series Breaking Stigmas: Art and Cannabis in North America (Center for Research on North America of the National Autonomous University of Mexico). A related project is the edited book Honoring Master Plants: Ancestral Worldviews and New Perspectives on “Psychedelics” with chapters being co-authored by individuals featured in the Perspectives in Psychedelics: BIPOC Speaker Series. Marty is the producer of the community access television program Getting High on Anthropology.
Suggested donation of $10, payable at the door. Door fee goes toward paying for the rented venue and supporting the non-profit work of The Nowak Society. If you have ideas for topics or presentations for these meetup groups or would like to be more involved, please contact us!
Finally, if you have a brochure, flyer or business card you want to display, please bring them! We kindly request that anything advertised is legal and aboveboard, but otherwise we're happy to make space for you to share your offerings with the larger community.
For more information and to RSVP, visit https://www.thenowaksociety.org/events
Event Venue
Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave, Boulder, CO 80301-2460, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
