Reilly Capps
Psychedelics Journalist
Turning an interest in psychedelics into a timely beat
Colorado voters passed a measure in 2022 that legalized the use of psilocybin (the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) and four other hallucinogens. The measure also created a legal framework for licensed therapists to administer these drugs for therapeutic use.
This wasn’t an overnight event, though — and Colorado-based journalist Reilly Capps knows that all too well: He’s been writing about psilocybin for nearly a decade, back when the passage of such a measure seemed like an impossible task.
Capps also has a personal connection to psychedelics. He used ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew from two different types of plants found in the South American rainforest, to kick a drinking habit. Capps now holds monthly meetings to connect people in the Centennial State who are using psychedelics to overcome addictive habits.
By Agnes Cheung
I started writing for a cool weed magazine called Dope back in 2012, but it was hard to talk about these drugs. The looks that I got from my family, neighbors, and people in my everyday life were hard.
I could talk about the business, the law, the politics around the drugs, and people were into that because they understood those things. But if you hadn’t even tried marijuana, you couldn’t quite grasp it. It’s as if you were a ballerina and you wanted to write about the craft of ballet itself, but nobody cared about it; all they wanted to know was how many tickets were sold and who directed the production.
I wanted to talk about weed and how it affects the mind and the way you deal with the world. That was just a little too esoteric, even for Dope. I felt lonely and out of place.
So in 2015 I wrote a newsletter called “Aya News” about ayahuasca and the scientific research that was being done. I didn’t want to make any money out of it — I just had something to say. I sent it to 50 of my friends. They said, “What are you doing writing about that? Don’t you think that’s going to hurt you? Isn’t that illegal? Doesn’t it make people crazy?”
Publishing that newsletter was one of the hardest things I had ever done, and then showing my face to my parents, my grandmother, my sister, and my nieces. I felt like what I had to say was not welcomed to be said.
Writing About Psychedelic Trips
When I first started writing about psychedelics, the stories I wrote were about seeing the pretty colors during a trip, being in touch with nature or getting in touch with spirits. Just like reporting about any new unknown topic, when you write about particular details of the experience, that becomes the public opinion. It was cool but scary to have that much power.
By 2015, only around 20% of people had ever taken psychedelics in America, so published stories that had 100,000 shares became “the truth.” Tripping is a very personal, private experience. If someone shared their experience and said, “This shows you God,” that was the narrative people spread. Psychedelics were so unknown to the mainstream audience that journalists had a lot of influence in the culture. If they brought a particular aspect to light and left the rest in the dark, that was what people would think about the substance.
I wrote about people taking massive doses of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), one of the most powerful psychedelic substances. They thought it put them in touch with another plane of existence or other beings outside themselves. That article got widely shared and brought a lot of people into the psychedelic community. People I didn’t know were calling me out of the blue, asking, “How do I meet the aliens?”
Conservatives for Magic Mushrooms
I felt that my reporting at that time loosened the grip of the oppressive government, and the hand came off people’s necks a tiny bit. A lot of journalists have done a lot of better things, of course, but that was the place where I could make an impact. It was the thing that was in front of me that I felt needed to be said, and hopefully I made a difference. It was very satisfying to feel like I had a small part in allowing people to experience psychedelics.
Over the past seven years, I’ve gone from people being dismissive of my writing to companies wanting my opinion. It is so gratifying and reassuring. I now have an interested audience who comes to hear what I was so desperately trying to say in 2015.
Psychedelics were so unknown to the mainstream audience that journalists had a lot of influence in the culture. If they brought a particular aspect to light and left the rest in the dark, that was what people would think about the substance.
If I’m crazy now, at least I’m crazy in a way that other people are crazy. If I see the world differently, I see the world differently in a way that some portion of the population also sees it differently. That made me feel more comfortable, warmer, a little bit happier, more at peace with myself.
During the midterm elections in November 2022, my mom (who is a conservative Catholic) voted to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelics in Colorado. She thinks natural medicine is going to help a lot of people. Now that some use of psychedelics are legalized in Colorado, even my dad, a lifelong Republican, is excited that there will be mushroom clinics and mushroom sessions.
I can talk again. I can say what I want and be myself with my family. It’s a big sigh of relief.