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GR movement seeks to educate residents on entheogenic plants, cites health benefits

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Posted at 4:16 PM, Apr 24, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-24 16:19:31-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Decriminalize Nature Grand Rapids wishes to inform local communities regarding entheogenic plants and their potential to be used as therapeutic tools.

We’re told research conducted by Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has shown that certain compounds inside entheogenic fungi and plants may be more beneficial to treat depression, anxiety and other health maladies than other prevalent therapies.

DNGR explains that it’s due to the aforementioned health benefits that it is part of a national campaign that hopes to decriminalize medicines derived from natural plants and fungi.

“According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Grand Rapids residents’ rate of depression is over twenty percent,” says DNGR Co-founder Chad Beyer. “At the same time, The Food and Drug Administration has granted psilocybin (found in entheogenic mushrooms) a ‘breakthrough therapy’ because of its success in treating depression.”

Beyer adds, “The time to explore alternative community health approaches to effectively treat depression has come.”

DNGR tells us a handful of municipalities throughout the country have already decriminalized plants and fungi, adding that Grand Rapids is close to becoming a leader in the decriminalization movement.

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