In a matter of moments, Jessica Fitzmaurice went from respected nurse to accused drug dealer, facing a decade in prison.

Her house was raided by hazmat suit-wearing law enforcement agents, who pointed guns at her while confiscating the “magic mushrooms” she had grown in hopes of easing her depression. A tip-off from a family member of her ex-husband led to the raid.

As a result of the arrest, she lost her career, custody of her kids, and her standing in the community.

Fitzmaurice said she never intended to sell the mushrooms—they were purely for personal use. She understands she broke the law, but believes those laws are unnecessarily criminalizing naturally occurring substances that could help millions of Americans suffering from depression and anxiety.

At the time of the 2022 incident, she was living in her hometown in Indiana. With the help of an attorney familiar with similar cases, she avoided jail time. Today, she lives in Bella Vista and works as a waitress.

She’s also the cofounder of Decriminalize Nature NW Arkansas, a group launched in 2023 that advocates for the decriminalization of psilocybin and other naturally occurring hallucinogenic plants and fungi.

The group is hosting a one-day summit on July 26 at the Bentonville Public Library, featuring sessions on legal, spiritual, therapeutic, and policy aspects of psychedelic use.

Not unlike marijuana before it, psychedelics are beginning to gain traction in the medical community, with experts exploring whether psychedelics may offer legitimate therapeutic benefits. Notably, while federal law still broadly prohibits them, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is conducting studies into psychedelic therapies for PTSD.

Psychedelic mushrooms, in particular, are often associated with hippies in the 1960s.

Beth Day, another cofounder of the group, doesn’t look very much like a hippie: she’s an established real estate broker, mother, and longtime Bentonville resident. She risked serious legal trouble in pursuit of relief from past traumas. And, she says, she found the healing she was looking for.

“I grew up a devout Mormon. I had never touched a substance of any kind—not even a cup of coffee—until I was 35 years old. So it was a big step for me,” Day said. “But I read the research, and I felt deeply that this was something I needed to try.”

For both Fitzmaurice and Day, the decision to try psychedelics was an effort to manage their mental health struggles.

“When you ask someone who’s desperate, who’s in incredible pain, whether they would take the risk of doing something illegal to stop the pain, you show me a person who wouldn’t take a mushroom that was illegal to stop that,” Day said.

That personal urgency is what’s driving their push for policy reform, though figuring out how change happens at the local level hasn’t been easy.

“There’s been a lot of openness and kindness from our election officials, but not a lot of knowledge about how they can actually help at the city level,” Day said. “We feel like we’re trying to figure that out ourselves — how does a city council resolution that deprioritizes the arrest and prosecution of individuals who have personal possession — how does that actually happen? How does that get into practice, at the level of the local police?”

According to one legislation tracker, at least 20 municipalities in the U.S. have directed local law enforcement to deprioritize or cease prosecutions for possession of naturally-occurring psychedelics, and several states have legalized their usage to some degree.

Decriminalize Nature NW Arkansas has been meeting with local politicians, including Bentonville and Bella Vista city council members, asking them to consider similar legislation. The two women spoke with The Bentonville Bulletin on the same day they attended a meeting of the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force and met with a state senator.

It’s a longshot effort and an uphill climb to bring about change. Despite the odds, they remain hopeful, especially when it comes to local policy.

“It’s like climbing a mountain, it is. But I think we can reach the top. I would stop doing it if I didn’t think we could get it done, I wouldn’t waste my time,” Fitzmaurice said.