NFL Star QB Aaron Rodgers & Rick Perry To Speak At Psychedelics Conference

A conference in Denver will be hosted to speak about psychedelics after Colorado joined Oregon in making psychedelic mushrooms legal.

It has been estimated that around 10,000 people will attend the conference. 

The conference will be led by a psychedelic advocacy group that has put together a panel of speakers. The panel is made up of people you wouldn’t typically expect to speak at this kind of event.

Aaron Rodgers, Jaden Smith and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry are some of the guest speakers. 

Rodgers is an NFL quarterback who is set to play with the New York Jets, which he recently just joined, after playing for the Green Bay Packers for years. He has been open about using psychedelics, specifically ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is psychedelic that contains DMT and originates from South America. It is a type of brew made from different plants. 

Smith, who is the son of actor Will Smith, is a singer and rapper. He uses psychedelics and states that he felt an “ego dissolution” while using them. 

Perry is known to advocate for the research of psychedelics and their benefits for people who experience PTSD, specifically veterans. He has helped get a bill passed in Texas in 2021 that funds research into psilocybin, which can be used to treat PTSD. 

The organization hosting the event is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. It is one of the biggest advocacy groups for psychedelics in the U.S. 

Other speakers will attend the conference, including Daniel Carcillo, Sasha Baron Cohen, Reggie Watts, Eric Andre, Andrew Huberman and Carl Hart. 

Psychedelics are currently illegal federally. In more recent years, there has been an increased interest in researching and learning more about the positives of psychedelics. While psychedelics are traditionally thought of as harmful to one’s brain, new research shows evidence contrary to this. One example is psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms. They can alter how a person thinks and how the brain is organized. This can be beneficial for people with depression or alcoholism and help them overcome that. 

More states are considering commissioning studies for psychedelics, including Utah and Missouri. 

This is not the first conference of its kind. Six years ago, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies held a conference in Oakland, California. They had around 3,000 attendees and guest speakers.