Woodland Park council hears options to regulate natural medicine healing centers under state law

Woodland Park city officials and community members on Jan. 16 discussed how the city might regulate so-called natural medicine healing centers — facilities that would provide psilocybin-assisted sessions — after Colorado’s voter-approved natural medicine law and state licensing programs opened a path for licensed businesses.

City Attorney Betsy Stewart told the council the city cannot ban licensed natural-medicine businesses but can adopt “time, place and manner” rules. “We can't prohibit a facility or a healing center or cultivation or anything in the city. Just by law, we can't,” Stewart said, and she described zoning, distance and operational limits the city can adopt.

The issue arose during a work session that included a presentation from Jason Friesma, a licensed professional counselor who described clinical practices he said have served veterans, first responders and people with treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Friesma said his plan is to establish a licensed healing center and described screening, preparation, dosing and integration procedures he follows. “My vision … is to create a world where suffering from maladies that are clearly treatable with natural medicine can be healed quickly and competently,” Friesma told the council.

Friesma and several public commenters urged a local approach that allows regulated, clinic-based care and lowers barriers for veterans and others who cannot afford out-of-area trips. Resident and veteran Eli Varney and retired firefighter-paramedic Dalton Lane described personal and clinical experience with trauma care and supported access to supervised sessions. “It has helped me more than the past 10 years of therapy,” one commenter said of psilocybin-assisted work.

Police Chief Ben (last name not specified in the record) outlined enforcement concerns centered on impaired driving and public-safety safeguards. The chief said standard field-sobriety testing and chemical testing remain tools officers would use in impaired-driving investigations but emphasized the need for local safeguards such as requirements that clients have prearranged rides home and that centers follow secure storage and surveillance rules.

Stewart and the chief both discussed zoning and nuisance-control options. Stewart said municipalities commonly use a 1,000-foot buffer from child-centered facilities such as day cares and schools; she noted some jurisdictions have tested larger buffers — Colorado Springs reportedly tried a one-mile distance — but warned extreme distances may not survive legal challenge. Stewart described other local limits the city could adopt: hours of operation, odor control and rules about on-site cultivation, lighting, window screening and secure storage.

Friesma and members of the public said licensing and startup costs are substantial. Participants cited training and certification fees that can reach several thousand dollars and state licensing fees referenced in the presentation in the range of about $6,000 to $10,000; Friesma said facilitator training he is pursuing cost him roughly $7,000. Friesma also noted state rules will bar centers from selling the substance directly and allow businesses to charge only for services; he said currently the substance is obtained by legacy means until regulated supply and lot-tracking are operational.

Councilmembers asked staff and the city attorney to draft ordinance options based on sample regulations from other Colorado municipalities and the state framework, and to return with maps and recommended zoning and operational language. The council did not take a new formal vote at the session; a citywide temporary moratorium on new establishments is already in effect and was described in the meeting as a six-month moratorium that gives the city time to draft local rules.

The council scheduled further consideration during council reports and agreed to allow staff time to prepare draft ordinances, maps and sample provisions for review and public hearings. Stewart said the Colorado Department of Revenue and the Department of Regulatory Agencies will notify municipalities about license applications, which the city can use to check local compliance once rules are adopted.

For now, the questions the city identified include whether to adopt a 1,000-foot buffer from schools and child-care facilities, limits on hours and overnight operations, security and storage requirements, a cap on the number of local healing centers, and how to ensure affordable access for veterans and low-income residents. Councilmembers and staff agreed to follow up with additional briefings and a draft ordinance for public hearings.