Colorado House legislators have advanced a Senate passed bill which would allow the governor to grant pardons for people who were convicted of crimes related to psychedelics. It also revised implementation rules and provisions on data-tracking in the state’s voter approved psychedelics law that is set to take effect 2022.
Members of House passed SB25-297 on second reading in a voice vote Monday, following Senate passage of the proposal on a 23–12 vote last week. After a third and final reading vote is held, the bill will go to the governor.
The data will be used to monitor psilocybin and healing centers. [and] Hospital admissions can be derived from data collected by police centers. It is useful in the way we develop policy,” Rep. Lisa Feret, a D-Rep and sponsor of this bill told her colleagues. In 2022, we passed a law allowing the use of Psilocybin. The data will be collected to help us make better policies.
The bill, if passed, would allow Gov. Jared Polis or future Governors could grant clemency in cases where people have convictions of possession at low levels for drugs like DMT, DMT, and ibogaine that are now legalized.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment(CDPHE), Department of Revenue(DOR) and Department of Regulatory Agencies DORA would have to also “collect data and information related to the usage of natural medicines and natural medicine product.”
Included in this data would be information about law enforcement, adverse events and health claims, as well as behavioral effects related to psychedelics.
“This bill sets up a way to collect data on health. This should allow us to know whether the natural medicine we’re using has any adverse effects, or if it is beneficial,” said Sen. Matt Ball (D), the Senate’s sponsor of SB25-297 during a last-week discussion.
A Senate committee approved an amendment that removed the government’s appropriation for data tracking and collection. The change replaced “ongoing appropriations” with “appropriations or gifts, grants, or donations,” and Ball said that lawmakers have a letter of intent from the Psychedelic Science Funders Collaborative—a nonprofit that supports advancing psychedelic therapy—to fund the program for the entirety of its five-year duration.
Feret noted also on the House Floor Monday that data-tracking will “be funded by grant dollar, so we won’t be taking anymore money from this.”
In its current format, the bill would allocate $208,240 as gifts, grants, and donations to Governor’s Office of Information Technology. The Senate amended version states that the governor’s office of information technology may use the appropriation for IT services to the Department of Public Health and Environment.
It would also amend licensing rules and the ownership of centers that offer psychedelic therapies. The legislation, for example, removes a fingerprint requirement for employees and owners of licensed centers, allowing them to only undergo name-based criminal checks.
The law also “requires that the state licensing authorities adopt rules related product labels and products for regulated herbal medicine, and allows the licensing authorities to adopt regulations regarding what types of natural medicine products can be produced.”
A wide range of groups, both those who support psychedelics and others more skeptical about legalization, have endorsed the proposal. Public commenters at a hearing last month seemed to agree that the bill’s data collection provisions would help observers both inside and outside Colorado better understand the outcomes around regulated psychedelics.
Meanwhile in Colorado, last month the governor signed into law a bill that would allow a form of psilocybin to be prescribed as a medication if the federal government authorizes its use.
Colorado has already made psilocybin, and other psychedelics legal for adults over 21 years old through a ballot initiative approved by voters. The newly implemented reform allows drugs that contain an isolated version of psilocybin synthesized using psilocybin to be available on physician prescription.
As of January, meanwhile, Colorado regulars have been authorized to approve licenses for psilocybin service centers where adults can access the psychedelic in controlled settings.
The governor signed a bill to create the regulatory framework for legal psychedelics in 2023.
Legislators are clearly interested in allowing a conventional distribution system for some psychedelics. In 2022, Polis also signed a bill to align state statute to legalize MDMA prescriptions if and when the federal government ultimately permits such use.
It is uncertain whether FDA will move forward with such approvals. In fact, last year the agency was criticized after it rejected an application for MDMA therapy to treat PTSD.
Meanwhile in Colorado, a bill that would have limited THC in marijuana and outlawed a variety of psilocybin products will no longer move forward this session following the lead sponsor’s move to withdraw the bill.
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The photo is courtesy Wikimedia/Workman.